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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Social Movements, Institutions and Governance
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1512414
This article is part of the Research Topic Regenerative Agriculture and Support in Changing Policy Environments: Farmers’ Rights, Contract Farming, and Navigating towards Sustainable Practices View all 6 articles

Exploring the Entrepreneurial Behavior of Vegetable Growers: Influential Factors and Implications for Agricultural Development

Provisionally accepted
Niyati Thakur Niyati Thakur 1*Ravinder Sharma Ravinder Sharma 1Pankaj Thakur Pankaj Thakur 2*Shilpa Shilpa Shilpa Shilpa 1Ashutosh Chaturvedi Ashutosh Chaturvedi 3Richa Khushwaha6 Richa Khushwaha6 4Saswat Kumar Pani Saswat Kumar Pani 5Vijay Kumar Yadav Vijay Kumar Yadav 2Akash Gaurav Singh Akash Gaurav Singh 6Ajit Sharma Ajit Sharma 1Prashant Sharma Prashant Sharma 1
  • 1 Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, India
  • 2 College of Forestry, Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, Ranichauri, Tehri-Gharwal, India
  • 3 Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (ICAR), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
  • 4 Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
  • 5 International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Telangana, India
  • 6 Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Entrepreneurship in agricultural sector is a key enabler of rural development and economic growth. This research delves into the entrepreneurial behavior of vegetable growers involved in polyhouse protected farming and focuses on the factors that influence their entrepreneurial pursuits. The research employed a mixed sampling methodology and the data collection was done by personally interviews. Whereas, data were analyzed using various statistical techniques including Entrepreneurial behavior index computation and Kendall's tau correlation. The results of the study reveal noteworthy associations between factors such as farm income, experience in protected cultivation, area allocated for polyhouse cultivation and extension contact with entrepreneurial behavior. Notably, income consistently demonstrated a positive correlation with all aspects of entrepreneurial behavior, while experience and extension contact also exhibited significant positive relationships. Conversely, education level displayed a negative correlation with risk-taking ability but a positive correlation with other dimensions such as cosmopoliteness and innovativeness. However, family size and gender did not demonstrate significant associations with entrepreneurial behavior. These findings underscored the intricate nature of entrepreneurial behavior among vegetable growers which necessitate tailored interventions to foster entrepreneurship in this sector. The research recommends policy measures like financial incentives, enhanced access to extension services and promoting collaboration among polyhouse cultivators to encourage entrepreneurship. These initiatives aim to overcome financial barriers, improve technical knowledge and address structural challenges, ultimately fostering sustainable entrepreneurship and agricultural development.

    Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Protected cultivation, entrepreneurial behaviour index, Kendall's tau correlation, vegetable farming, dimensions of EBI

    Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Thakur, Sharma, Thakur, Shilpa, Chaturvedi, Khushwaha6, Pani, Yadav, Singh, Sharma and Sharma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Niyati Thakur, Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, India
    Pankaj Thakur, College of Forestry, Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, Ranichauri, Tehri-Gharwal, India

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