Chapter I

INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is the lifeline of Indian economy. Agriculture provides the
underpinning for food and livelihood security and support for the economic growth
and social transformation of the country. In India, about 75 percent of the population
is dependent directly or indirectly on agricultural and allied sector. It has always been
India’s most important economic sector accounting for 13.6 percent of the gross
domestic product (GDP). Agriculture is also a way of life and a tradition, which for
many centuries has shaped thoughts, outlook, culture and the economic life of
Indians. It will continue to be central part to all strategies of planned socio-economic
development of the country. In India, rapid agricultural growth continues to be the
key to poverty alleviation and overall economic development. In the years to come,
the increase in agricultural production will mainly come from the growth in
productivity which will invite intervention of agricultural extension activities in
providing farmers information, training and support for adopting improved production
technologies. It is now widely accepted that sound agricultural development is
essential for overall economic progress. Given its range of agro-ecological setting and
more than 120 million farmers, agriculture is faced with a great diversity of needs,
opportunities and prospects. If it is to respond successfully to the new challenges
posed, greater attention will have to be paid to information based technologies and
strengthen means of dissemination to transmit the information to farmers.

To accomplish the high efficiency, productivity and profitability aspirations in

agriculture, the extension services will need strengthening by providing farmers,
information, training and support for adopting improved production technologies.
Since Independence, extension services have kept pace with the changing times.
However, an analysis of the demand for extension workers indicated that the
agriculture extension was suffering from inadequate quality and quantity of
manpower. MANAGE also reported that around 15,000 agrigraduates pass out every
year from agricultural universities and only around 2500 agrigraduates are able to find
jobs in private and public sector (Bairwa et al., 2014c). Thus every year around 11500
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agrigraduates are available for supporting the agriculture. The ratio of quantitatively
farmer to extension worker worked out to be 1000:1. It meant for every 1000 farmers
there was only one extension worker (Global Agrisystem, 2010 and Bairwa et al.,
2014c). As a result, quality time of extension worker available to each farmer was
minimum and inadequate. Besides, around only 20% of extension workers were
qualified agriculture graduates, rest of the extension workers found it difficult to
explaining complex issues of agriculture like Input – output relationship, quality
produce, WTO etc to the farmers (Global Agrisystem, 2010). The relative proportion
of agrigraduates finding employment in public sector in India is also shrinking
gradually, therefore more jobs opportunities should be create in private sector (George
and Bhaskaran, 2004). Government of India was envisages for achieving 4% annual
growth rate in agriculture and allied sector during the 11 th five year plan(2007 to
2012) and strongly recommended to evolve strategies to be reoriented to meet the
needs of the farmers (Shekara et al., 2011).

1.1 Origin of Agriclinic and Agribusiness Centre Scheme

Government of India constituted a steering committee on agriculture and allied

sectors under the chairmanship of Prof. M.S. Swaminathan. The committee suggested
creation of agriclinics and agribusiness centers managed by agri-graduates so as to
provide consultancy services to the farming community in rural areas (Karjagi, 2006).
In India, there is need for revitalization of extension system in the country to address
these issues, providing value added extension services to the farmer through
additional qualified main power and adequate infrastructure (Shekara et al., 2011).
Parimaladevi et al., (2006) reported that trained agricultural graduates have positive
and favorable attitude towards self employment and to start agriventure in rural areas.
In this background, to strengthen the extension services further and at the same time
tap the potential of the unemployed graduates and provide them employment
opportunities by making them entrepreneurs, Government of India constituted a
steering committee on agriculture and allied sectors under the chairmanship of Prof.
M.S. Swaminathan. Subsequently, the union finance minister had announced a
scheme for setting-up ‘Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centre’ by agriculture
graduates with the support of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

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(NABARD) in the budget speech on February 28, 2001.The scheme of ‘Agriclinics

and Agri business Centres’ was launched on 9th April, 2002 to strengthen the transfer
of technology and extension services and also provide self-employment opportunities
to technically trained persons. The scheme is open to agriculture graduates / graduates
in the subject allied to agriculture like horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy,
veterinary, poultry farming, fish culture and forestry. The programme was designed to
develop opportunities for private extension to lower the burden on public funding, to
offer a wider range of advice in specialist areas and to develop challenging job for
agricultural graduates. Table 1.1 shows the general information about the agriclinics
and agribusiness centres (ACABCs) scheme in India.

Table 1.1 General Information Regarding Agriclinic and Agribusiness

Centres Scheme (ACABCs) as on 2013

S.No. Particulars Remarks

1. Recommendation of Agriclinic and M.S. Swaminathan Committee
agribusiness centres scheme by the
committee
2. Date of announcement of scheme by 28th February 2001
Union Finance Minister
3. Date of launching of the scheme 9th April 2002
4. Eligibility criteria Graduate in agriculture and allied
subjects
5. Implementing agencies MANAGE, NABARD, Department of
Agriculture, Nodal Training Institutes
(NTIs) and Commercial Banks.
6. Total numbers of NTIs in India 116
7. Total numbers of Agrigraduate trained 30977
under the scheme
8. Total numbers of agriventure 11641
established under the scheme
9. Maximum number of agriventure Uttar Pradesh (3097)
established under the scheme in India
10. Maximum number of agriventure Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura (00)
established under the scheme in India
11. Subsidy and margin money under the Subsidy – 33% for General candidates
scheme and 44% for SC/ST/Women candidates

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Margin – Accordance to RBI guideline

Source: Compiled (2013)
1.2 Objectives of Agriclinic and Agribusiness Centre Scheme

Agriclinics and agribusiness centre’s scheme is emerging as an important

platform for agri graduates in the agricultural sector from the employment point of
view with the support of government in order to achieve objectives such as to orient
the extension functionaries on entrepreneurship development among the farmers to
improve their economic status. This scheme also promotes and fulfills the motivation
for agriculture and agribusiness among agriculture graduates and agri managers to
enjoy the benefits of business. Agriclinics and agribusiness centres (ACABC)
provides agricultural advisory services to farmers through technically trained
agricultural graduates at the village level, known as agripreneurs. NABARD provides
composite subsidy for the setting-up of agriclinic and agribusiness centres by agri
graduates in rural areas. The subsidy pattern is composite which will be back ended in
nature. It will be 44% of project cost for women, SC/ST and all categories of from NE
and Hill states and 33% of project cost for all other unreserved candidates
(www.agriclinics.net). The ACABC program evolved from the perceived need of
farmers for locally available, reliable, effective, and knowledgeable third-party advice
(Planning Commission, 2006). The objectives of the program are to supplement the
public extension system, increase the availability of inputs and services for farmers,
and provide employment to agriculture graduates (Global Agrisystem 2010). This
service aims to fill the gap in the public-sector extension system where currently input
dealer plays a major role in providing advice to guide input use. The program is open
to agricultural graduates nationwide and has been implemented since 2002 (Karjagi et
al. 2009). The centres provide a wide range of services, depending on the interests of
the graduates, and can include, but are not limited to, soil, water quality, and input
testing laboratory; plant protection services; vermin composting units; horticulture;
veterinary clinic; and agro service centres for farm machinery and primary processing
(NABARD, 2010). These centres will provide a package of input facilities,
consultancy and other services with the aim of strengthen transfer of technology and
extension services and also provide self employment opportunities to agricultural

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graduates. The agriclinics and agribusiness centres are useful tool for the employment
generation as well as opportunity for development of rural India. This scheme also
support to country to fights with hunger, poverty, malnutrition and unemployment by
generating employment opportunities and income sources in rural areas (Bairwa et
al., 2014a). This scheme is popular and powerful source for income and employment
generation for the rural in India. Thus, this programme aims to tap abundant expertise
available in the form of large pool of agricultural graduates in the country.
Irrespective of whether one is a fresh graduate or not or whether one is currently
employed or not, under the scheme one can set up his own agriventure and offer
services to innumerable farmers. The scheme aims at supplementing the existing
extension network to accelerate the process of technology transfer and providing
supplementary sources for input supply and services to large farmers who depended
upon state agencies. Thus, this scheme has following main objectives:

i. To supplement the efforts of government extension system to rural areas.

ii. To make available supplementary sources of input supply and services to needy
farmers.
iii. To provide gainful employment to agriculture graduates in new emerging areas in
agricultural sector.

1.3 Present status of Agriclinic and Agribusiness Centre Scheme in

India

Agriclinics and agribusiness centres scheme now become popular among

agrigraduates and served as a backbone to supplement the public extension services in
agriculture. As on 2013, the number of application received for two months training
under agriclinics and agribusiness centers scheme (ACABC) were estimated to be
32242, while the number of trained people accounts for 30977. The number of
agriventure established during this period was estimated to be 11641depicting a
success rate of almost 37 per cent. There are 116 nodal training institution (NTIs)
identified by MANAGE all over the country for training purpose. As per the mid-term
evaluation conducted by global Agrisystem private limited in respect of agriclinics
and agribusiness centers scheme the programme is being successfully implemented in
31 states across the country. It has generated for 4152 established agripreneurs, in turn

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these employed agriculture graduates have created further 25000 jobs across
segments. Thus, benefiting more than one lakh farmers in more than 7000 villages
across the country (Global Agrisystem, 2010). The scheme agriclinics and
agribusiness centre has been implemented in 31 states across the country and
agriventures have been established in 35 categories related to agriculture and allied
sectors. It was observed that various states have different success rates in
implementing the scheme. States in the Northern and Southern region have very
encouraging record, while states of North Eastern region have shown poor
performance in terms of setting up of agriventures (Global Agrisystem, 2010).
Although, agriclinics and agribusiness centres scheme provides specialized training,
credit facility, subsidy and handholding support for the establishment of
agribusiness/agriventure, but the success rate of total agriventure establishment is low
against total trained candidates in the country. The success rate is 37 percent against
30977 trained candidates including male and female candidates (18317 male and 1187
female as on 2009) (Bairwa et al., 2014c). There is a need to rethinking on the whole
gamut of components of scheme such as training programme, nodal training institutes,
credit assistance, subsidy and monitoring of scheme for successful implementation of
the scheme. The objectives of scheme such as technology transfer, employment
generation and strengthen the extension service system, has been met to some extent,
yet there is a need to involve private extension staff and agribusiness experts to
improve the performance of the scheme. Table 1.2 shows the summarize view of
progress of Agriclinics and Agribusiness Centre scheme made during inception to
January 2013.

Table 1.2 Overview of Agriclinics and Agribusiness Centre Scheme as on

January 2013

S.No. Name of the state No. of No. of No. of No. of nodal

application trained agriventure training
received graduate established institutes
1. Andhra Pradesh 1436 1276 496 7
2. Arunachal Pradesh 17 14 1 1
3. Assam 433 427 150 2
4. Bihar 2814 2749 900 6
5. Chandigarh 2 2 1 0

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Contd…

S.No. Name of the state No. of No. of No. of No. of nodal

application trained agriventure training
received graduate established institutes
6. Chhattisgarh 387 281 128 4
7. Delhi 12 12 2 1
8. Goa 5 3 1 0
9. Gujarat 1063 1037 342 6
10. Haryana 442 424 144 2
11. Himachal Pradesh 392 386 107 3
12. Jammu & Kashmir 1174 1158 147 5
13. Jharkhand 512 508 108 5
14. Karnataka 2558 2442 982 4
15. Kerala 181 174 34 1
16. Madhya Pradesh 835 810 263 6
17. Maharashtra 6470 6294 2682 14
18. Manipur 355 354 109 1
19. Meghalaya 9 9 3 1
20. Mizoram 34 34 0 1
21. Nagaland 150 147 13 1
22. Orissa 549 507 103 6
23. Pondicherry 86 86 48 1
24. Punjab 398 395 134 4
25. Rajasthan 2480 2367 829 6
26. Sikkim 0 0 0 0
27. Tamil Nadu 2877 2739 1214 9
28. Tripura 3 1 0 0
29 Uttar Pradesh 5910 5735 2584 14
30. Uttrakhand 293 273 63 2
31. West Bengal 365 333 53 4
Total 32242 30977 11641 114
Source: MANAGE, 2013
1.4 Need of the Study

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In India, there are 48 state agricultural universities, 569 KVKs, 17 National

Research centres and 4 deemed universities, 1 central agricultural university and
several other agricultural developmental organizations. Thus the country has a large
pool of skilled manpower and training platform in agriculture which can be suitably
used for achieving objectives of farming community. Out of these training institutes
operating in India, Rajasthan has 2 agricultural universities, 12 KVKs and many other
agencies for agricultural development. Rajasthan has several factors which makes
suitable and beneficial for business development such as large population, various
climate and availability of raw materials. Despite above things this scheme does not
completely successful in fulfill their objectives and still waiting for proper support
and attention for spreading across the country. There 5 institutes are identified in
Rajasthan as agriclinics and agribusiness training centres but some are imparting
training continuously from 2002 and few are discontinued due to lack of trainee’s
strengths and other problems.

The need of study on this topic “Performance of Agriclinics and Agribusiness

Centres Scheme in Rajasthan state” realized because of there are very less numbers
(677) of successful trained agrigraduates are reported to be success in setting their
agribusiness centers whereas failure trained candidates are more in numbers (1303) in
the Rajasthan as well as in India and what are the reason and corrective measure to
failure in establishing Agriclinics and agribusiness centers by trained candidates?
There were no systematic and comprehensive research study had been made in
Rajasthan and India thereby there is need to cover entire gamut of technical,
economical, social and operational aspects of AC and ABCs. Lack of research studies
on above mentioned aspects are the main concerns for the slow establishment of
agriclinics and agribusiness centers in the country. Hence, there is a need to make a
study about the agriclinics and agribusiness centres scheme and other aspects such as
training needs, impacts and problems of AC and ABCs faced by the trained graduates
in establishment their Agriclinics and agribusiness centres.

1.5 Objectives of the Study

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Keeping in view these above important considerations, present study was

undertaken in Rajasthan with the following objectives:

i. To study the general aspects of training programme under the agriclinics and
agribusiness centres scheme.
ii. To document the successful model projects and major success stories under
agriclinics and agribusiness centres scheme in the Rajasthan.
iii. To study the impacts of socio-economic factors on the progress of agriclinics
and agribusiness centres scheme.
iv. To study the strategies adopted by Banks for providing loans under the
agriclinics and agribusiness centres scheme.
v. To study the problems faced by trained agri-graduates during the
establishment and operation of agriventures.

1.6 Hypotheses of Objectives

i. H0 - Trainees under the scheme of Agriclinics and agribusiness centers are

satisfied with the training programme.

H1 - Trainees under the scheme of Agriclinics and agribusiness centers are not
satisfied with the training programme.

ii. H0 - All the projects listed under the scheme are being undertaken by the
sample agripreneurs.

H1 - All the projects listed under the scheme are not being undertaken by the
sample agripreneurs.

iii. H0 - The socio-economic factors have positive impact on the progress of

agriclinics and agribusiness centers scheme.

H1 - The socio-economic factors have negative impact on the progress of

agriclinics and agribusiness centers scheme.

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iv. H0 - All the commercial banks adopted the strategies governed by RBI for
lending the loans under the scheme of AC and ABCs.

H1 - All the commercial banks are not adopted the strategies governed by RBI
for lending the loans under the scheme of AC and ABCs.

v. H0 - Trained agricultural graduates are facing several problems in establishing

and operating their agriclinics and agribusiness centers.

H1 - Trained agricultural graduates are not facing several problems in

establishing and operating their agriclinics and agribusiness centers.

1.7 Plan of Research Work

The entire research study was presented in six chapters. The chapter first was
dealing with introduction and objectives of the research study. A comprehensive
review of relevant studies was iterated in chapter second. The chapter third will
incorporate methodology and analytical framework. The fourth chapter contains
description of the study area. The fifth chapter was documenting the salient results
which were obtained from the analysis of collected information and also covered the
discussion with logical reasoning duly supported by previous work. Summary and
conclusion of the study was presented in chapter sixth followed by the references
were made from the reports, journals, books and other sources.

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