MSc

The study entitled “Farmer Producer Organizations in Kerala: A constraint analysis” was designed to assess constraints faced by the members of FPOs. Wayanad district from Northern Kerala, Idukki district from Central Kerala and Trivandrum district from Southern Kerala were purposively selected for the study as they have highest number of FPOs in the state. Two functioning FPOs each were selected from Wayanad, Idukki and Trivandrum based on the discussion with NABARD, SFAC and KVK. From each selected FPO, 20 members were randomly selected. A total of 40 farmers were surveyed from each district thus making a total of 120 farmers. Expost facto research design was used for the study. Constraints statements were provided to the respondents and were asked to rank the constraints. Garrett ranking technique was used to rank the constraints according to their order of preference from major constraint to minor constraint. major constraints faced by FPO members were marketing challenge, lack of professional business skill, lack of training on packaging, lack of funds, competition from branded products, less membership in FPO, seasonality of products, lack of awareness about the FPO and frequent change in CEO.
Entrepreneurial Behaviour and livelihood security were selected as dependent variables. Entrepreneurial Behaviour and livelihood security were assessed using Entrepreneurial Behaviour Index and Livelihood Security Index developed by Wankhade et al. (2005) and Baby (2005) respectively. Components of entrepreneurial behaviour were risk taking, innovativeness, manageability, selfconfidence, knowledgeability, persistence, feedback usage, persuasibility, hope of success and achievement motivation. Components of livelihood security were food security, habitat security, educational security, health security, social security and occupational security. The personal and socio-economic variables selected through judges rating were age, education, annual income, scientific orientation, number of trainings attended, social participation, scientific orientation, group cohesiveness, credit orientation, institutional intervention and creativity. Two third of the respondents (65.83%) had medium entrepreneurial behaviour. 71.67per cent of the respondents had medium risk-taking ability, 65 per cent had medium hope of success and persistence, 57.50 per cent had medium feedback usage, 71.67 per cent had medium selfconfidence and knowledgeability, 57.50 per cent had medium persuasibility,69.17 per cent had medium manageability, 76.67 per cent had medium innovativeness and 72.50 per cent had medium achievement motivation. 65.83 per cent of the respondents had medium secure livelihood followed by 18.33 and 15.83 per cent of respondents with high and less secure livelihood respectively.
More than half of the respondents (52.50%) belonged to middle age group, 35 per cent of the respondents had education up to high school and 42.50 per cent had medium level of income (Rs.60,000 – Rs 2,00,000). 60.83 per cent had medium level of scientific orientation, 50.83 per cent had medium level of credit orientation. 65 per cent had medium group cohesiveness and 65.83 per cent had medium creativity.
Entrepreneurial behavior had positive and significant correlation with education, income, training, scientific orientation, group cohesiveness and creativity. It had negative and non-significant correlation with age and credit orientation. Entrepreneurial behaviour had positive and significant correlation with food security, habitat security, educational security, social security, occupational security and livelihood security. Health security had a non- significant correlation with entrepreneurial behaviour.
The major constraint identified was the marketing challenge faced by the FPO members. Suggestive measures recommended were the installation of cold storage facilities for the FPOs dealing with perishable commodities, providing trainings on improving the quality of the product which helps in export and increasing publicity by displaying their products in exhibitions.
Majority of the FPO members had medium entrepreneurial behaviour and livelihood security. Also, entrepreneurial behaviour was found to have positive and significant correlation with livelihood security. Therefore, it can be concluded that entrepreneurial behaviour plays a major role in securing the livelihood of FPO.