An assessment on the entrepreneurial behaviour of cassava growers in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state

Abstract

The study was conducted in two blocks of Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state during 2020-2021 to analyse the entrepreneurial behaviour of cassava growers. The Ex-post-facto research design has been adopted in the present study. A total of 120 cassava growers were selected using simple random sampling techniques from three villages in each block. Personal interview method was used to collect data and appropriate statistical tools were applied to analyse the data. Regarding different dimensions of entrepreneurial behavior among cassava growers, findings indicated that 43.33% exhibited a medium level of innovativeness, while 41.67% fell into the medium category for achievement motivation. Similarly, 35.83% showed a medium level of economic motivation, and 38.33% possessed a medium level of technical competency. Additionally, more than one-third (38.33%) demonstrated a high level of decision-making ability, while 40.83% exhibited a medium level of risk-bearing ability. Furthermore, an equal proportion (35.00% each) showed medium and high levels of information-seeking behavior, and 40.00% displayed a medium level of scientific orientation. Around 46.67% showed a medium level of leadership orientation, 45.00% displayed a medium level of management orientation, and 38.33% exhibited a medium level of marketing strategy. The overall entrepreneurial behavior score based on the cumulative raw scores of all the eleven dimensions revealed that, more than half (52.50%) of them belonged to medium entrepreneurial behaviour, followed by high (27.50%) and low (20.00%) entrepreneurial behaviour categories, respectively.