Entrepreneurship in Primary Food Processing Industries in an Agriculturally Developed Region: A Study of Punjab

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has been recognised as one of the important variables in growth and development of economies and communities. There have been many studies which have tried to explain the rise and growth of entrepreneurship in different activities especially industry, though there are some scholarly studies on rural and agricultural entrepreneurship as well (Nair 1961, Broehl 1978, and Sims 1988). However, the intermediate sector of agriculture related and agriculture-based primary processing industries has escaped the attention of researchers. There are very few studies on entrepreneurship in the context of agro-industries or studies of agro-industries which focus on entrepreneurship. In this background, this paper attempts a study of entrepreneurial origins and behaviour of primary food processing industrialists i.e. rice mill and oil mill owners in Punjab - the green revolution region of India, with a view to locate the factors in transition of an agricultural community towards industrial capital with agricultural investible surpluses, and other dimensions of the phenomenon like success in new activities and occupational mobility. The second section reviews the theories and empirical work on entrepreneurship in Indian industry with special focus on the study area. The third section deals with entrepreneurial aspects of food industries in two districts of Punjab - one agriculturally and industrially developed and the other relatively less developed in both these respects. The paper then concludes with summary of the major findings and issues for further research.