Agri-Preneurs: A Case Study of Dharmapuri Farmers

After independence, the focus of the Government of India was to frame the major policies based on equity along with growth in the agriculture sector. Being an agrarian country, many efforts been made towards economic and social stabilization over the past decades, but not much progress has been achieved in the growth of the agro industrial sector. Farmers lack access to adequate agricultural technology inputs, funding and commercial farming skills have put the quality under the threat. The productivity may be increasing, but better quality not been achieved. With the increase in agricultural production, there is a need to have the proportionate growth in the agro-processing industry. In the recent past most of the farmers are becoming real estate owners by giving their fertile land to edifice industry, because they are unable to meet the expenditure spent on cultivation, high rates of interests taken from landlords, commission agents, banks and financial institutions, few among them committed suicide, the rate of suicide cases was out of control. Government from time to time taking steps to eradicate the effects in agriculture but they confined only to paper. In Dharmapuri, Karimnagar District of Andhra Pradesh farmers came forward to start their own associations to meet their problems without government intervention. This paper focuses on the farmers those who became entrepreneurs to Agri-preneurs, studies about the profile of agricultural entrepreneurs i. e. agri-preneurs and their socio cultural background in Dharmapuri in Andhra Pradesh.