JOURNAL OF ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGIES IN AGRICULTURE
Year:2020 | Volume:6 | Issue:12|Papers Count:12

Agricultural entrepreneurship one of the aspects of entrepreneurship is the acceptance of the risks of a product, service, and business unit related to agricultural activities. The purpose of this study was to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of entrepreneurship development in the agricultural sector of Khuzestan province using AHPSWOT integrated approach. The research method is applied in terms of purpose and descriptiveanalytic in nature. Data were collected using a questionnaire and interviews with experts. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of SWOT were determined and strategies weighted using AHP. The results showed that the study area for development of agricultural entrepreneurship with strengths and final points of., weaknesses and final points of., opportunities and final points of. and threats and final points of. is facing. The results also showed that the existence of different climates at the provincial level and diversity in agricultural production are the most important strengths, lack of support from public institutions, and adequate access to government facilities. The most important weaknesses are the existence of natural capacities and potentials for investment in agriculture. Highlights of high opportunity and high risk investment in the agricultural sector by the private sector are the most important threat point in the development of agricultural entrepreneurship in Khuzestan province. Therefore, according to the results of SWOT model, it is possible to develop agriculture based on entrepreneurship approach, by recognizing the potentials and areas affecting the agricultural sector. For example, by creating and developing by-products for strategic products in the region (sugar cane and dates) and adopting the necessary measures to reduce administrative barriers, creating favorable conditions for the use of banking facilities and the production of new by-products can be used to develop entrepreneurship in agriculture. Khuzestan province took an effective step.

Agricultural infrastructured included the entire body of basic services needed for the growth of an economy and for the improvement of the efficiency of the markets related to food and dietary fiber. Investment in agricultural infrastructure calls for a wide-spread collaboration among the various organization involved in the sector. The main purpose of the present research was to identify and prioritize the opportunities available for infrastructural investment with an emphasis on the public-private partnership approach so as to develop agricultural businesses. This research is a qualitative type study in which top experts and entrepreneurs versed in agricultural practice were selected as research samples through a purposive sampling method. Then, the infrastructural of different sections and sub-sections were identified to be prioritized through the hierarchical analysis technique, using Expert Choice software. The research findings well revealed that the opportunities for infrastructural investment and the pertinent priorities fall into two categories: a) public infrastructure (consisting of transportation, gas supply, and farming and greenhouse estates, respectively) and b) agricultural specialized infrastructure (consisting of soil/ land, water, and services, respectively). Also, the research findings well proposed the following suggestions as the points of focus and of investment by the public sector and the private sector, respectively: Rural transportation, and making farmers familiar with cadaster projects and livestock-breeding projects.

The growth and development of any society requires the optimal utilization of its educated human resources. Agricultural students and graduates as specialists in agricultural sector are the main stimulus of agricultural development in the country. The occupation of agricultural graduates is one of the most important concerns of society and plicymakers. The increasing unemployment rate of the university graduates has raised many concerns for agricultural students and their families. Therefore, present research was conducted with the aim of assessing students' attitudes toward the future of occupation in agricultural sector, in Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University. Present research is a descriptive-correlational study and survey method with questionnaire was used to collect data. The statistical population of the study was all students of Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University ( students). A sample of students were selected using stratified random sampling. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the experts in agricultural extension and education and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire scales (ranged. – . ). The study results revealed that students' attitude toward the future of occupation in agricultural sector was in average. Moreover, the results of mean comparison tests showed that there was no significant difference between male and female students, students of different faculties and students with different job situation regarding their attitudes toward the future of occupation in agriculture. But students who had at least an acquaintance with the agriculture filed before entering the university had a more favorable attitude toward the future of the agricultural sector. The results of regression analysis showed that students' attitudes towards future of occupation in agriculture are affected by the degree of the related people agreement with their choice of the field of agriculture, the degree of facing with problems at the university, the amount of studying and the duration of attending the university.

Considering the economical development level, Women play a crucial role in agricultural and rural development especially in developing countries. Paying attention to the development of entrepreneurial activities in rural areas is one of the ways towards development. Carried out through survey and classification random sampling methods, the present research aimed to analyze the individual and supportive variables of entrepreneurial activities among rural women in Fars province. Participants of this study were all of the members of Fars Province Agricultural Development support fund Companies ( individuales) which are activate in three companies in Marvdasht, Shiraz and Estahban counties. The sample consist of rural women according to the Krejcie and Morgan table. Results indicated that to improve rural women’ s entrepreneurship, elevation of entrepreneurial spirit and motivation as well as providing other necessary factors including suitable business environment with facilitating policies of the compony in order to develope rural women entrepreneurial activities are necessary “ Gaining income and profit” and “ high-quality production increasement” were considered as the two main items for improvement of rural women` motivation in entrepreneurial activities. Based on findings, women entrepreneurs of Marvdasht have depicted a more desirable performance in comparison with Estahban and Shiraz rural entrepreneur women in the following fields: the effectiveness of information sources, creativity, the skills of compiling commercial plan, entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial motivation, information effectiveness, company conducted education, governmental supportive policies, company facilitating policies, business environment and managerial power of the Funds' directors. Thus, women entrepreneurs of Marvdasht could be a good model for entrepreneurisl activities improvement of the women in the two other studied sounties; Thus, it is suggested to provide monthly meetings for the rural women entrepreneurs of three counties in order to communicate and negotiate continouosly for transferring their valueable experiences.

Entrepreneurship is an important issue that has been raised in all aspects of economic and social development. Now, the most important question in the communities, especially in developing countries is how people can be entrepreneurs and how can they create entrepreneurial opportunities. Nowadays because of technological development people can communicate with each other in many different ways, social network is one of them. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explain the determinants for entrepreneurial behavior of members of agricultural social networks. This study was among members of social networks "entrepreneurial knowledge exchange". The population included members and study sample was calculated members using simple random sampling. The assessment tool in this study was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by experts and its reliability was confirmed through pilot testing and Cranach's alpha was between.-. . The analysis of regression showed that virtual social networking features, some entrepreneurial characteristics such as risk, identify and evaluate opportunities and incentives can predict. percent of the variation in entrepreneurial behavior as a dependent variable. It recommends identifying and evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities by identifying the types of opportunities and familiarizing them with possible conditions and opportunities and how to identify them.

Creating full employment is one of the macroeconomic goals of politicians in all countries. Unemployment is one of the major problems facing the Iranian economy, reduction of which requires investment in various sectors of the economy and production boom. Improving the marketing situation of agricultural products can boost production, increase income and employment in agriculture. An agricultural commodity exchange boom is one way to improve the marketing position of agricultural products. The agricultural commodity exchange is an organized marketplace and a speculative example of the hypothetical of the markets. Traditional Iranian markets are not efficient for reasons not competitive, smallness, the existence of multiple marketing layers, the lack of transparency of market information and the existence of price fluctuations. Hence, the purpose of this study was to identify barriers to entry of selected agricultural products in Khorasan Razavi province to the Commodity Exchange. For this purpose, the most important barriers to supplying agricultural products were first identified by the Fuzzy Delphi method and then, using the fuzzy DEMTEL technique, the effect of each indicator on the supply of goods was investigated. The statistical population of this research includes agricultural Jihad experts, university professors and brokerage experts in Khorasan Razavi province in. The results indicated that the most important obstacles to the supply of agricultural products to the stock exchange were the lack of educational systems to increase the skills and knowledge of farmers with the stock exchange, the lack of integrated agricultural organizations, commodity corruption, non-uniformity of goods (non-homogeneity of products), the absence of contracts proportional to the conditions for agricultural producers and buyers, and the existence of parallel markets such as Fruit and vegetable squares. Investigation of the interactions of factors illustrates that lack of educational systems to increase the skills and knowledge of farmers and the lack of familiarity of agricultural producers with agricultural commodity stock are the most effective factor and the lack of appropriate contracts to the conditions of the producers and buyers of agricultural products, the corruption of goods, nonuniformity of goods, and the lack of coherent agricultural associations are the most influential or most perceptible factors. Finally, it is recommended to familiarize producers with the agricultural commodity exchange and to provide the necessary background for the commodity producers to supply the commodity exchange.

Improving business environment is one of the factors affecting on the economic development of rural areas. In this study, of the owners of agricultural businesses were evaluated and ranking of business environment was conducted. Factor analysis showed that factors effect the rural economic activists, which explain of the changes. Among the extracted factors, the first factor with. of total changes was named as business environment. Based on the components of this factor, the share of each of the measurable items was calculated and according to these shares, the cities of Mazandaran province were ranked. Results of TOPSIS method showed that Babol, Sari and Amol cities are in the ranks of the first to third respectively in rural areas. The scores of these three cities are., . and., respectively. The score of each city shows that the cities of Mazandaran province are different in terms of business environment index and all of cities are far from the ideal point, so it is necessary to do appropriate actions for Improvement the states of cities of Mazandaran province. The most important priorities for improving the business environment in rural areas are security and social capital, accessing to electricity, roads and markets, respectively.

It is important to pay attention to the quality and applicability of entrepreneurship courses for self-employment of students of agricultural sciences and natural resources in universities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of entrepreneurship education services provided by students of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The statistical population of the study consisted of students who had completed entrepreneurship course in and were selected as the sample of the study. Using Cochran formula and stratified random sampling, the sample size was persons. The research tool was a standard SERVQUAL questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by faculty members of Agricultural Extension and Education Department of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. SPSS software was used for data analysis. The results showed that there was a negative gap between students' perception and expectation in all five dimensions of SERVQUAL questionnaire, with the highest gap in guarantee dimension (-) and the lowest gap in responsiveness (-). According to the research findings, it is suggested to create an attractive and dynamic classroom environment for students by 'understanding the students' moods and expectations. Teachers to exchange ideas, introduce students to the future workplace and employment, empathy and flexibility in the classroom, easy access to professors, allocate hours for student counseling, and provide regular and interconnected lessons, and student participation in classroom discussions. They can increase perceptions as expected, in which case the higher education system will improve the quality of education.

Current applied research through strategic planning approach was implemented in two phase in, and was aimed to analyze the situation and formulate strategies for development of olive supply chain in Roudbar county, Guilan province. The first phase was based on qualitative interviews and the second phase was done through quantitative method. The findings of the first phase were used to describe the issue and generalities of the research design as well as the development of research tools in the second phase. In this regard external factors ( opportunities and threats) and internal factors ( strengths and weaknesses) were identified. In second phase, finding of first phase was used to formulate a questionnaire to assess and develop strategies based on SWOT technique and strategic planning matrix. Content and face validity of the researcher-made questionnaire as research tool was confirmed by an expert panel (including a group of faculty members and local extension agents). Some items have been removed or merged to increase the validity of the questionnaire. Its reliability was confirmed by calculated Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient (between. and. ). The target population of this research included all olive producers in Roudbar County (N= ). According to Krejcie and Morgan's sample size table, sample size was determined (n= ). The respondents were selected by simple random sampling technique. The results of the items ranking showed that "The reputation of the olive of Roudbar County (place brand)" as strength “ lack of recognition the capacity of international markets by olive producers in the county", as weakness, "possibility of entering pests (Olive flies, olive branch) from the boundaries to the province" as a threat and, "possibility to increase the value of the olive product by improving the planting, rearing and post harvesting methods" as the opportunity have the highest priority. The results of SWOT technique showed that total score of internal factors are. and. respectively and total score of external factors are. and. respectively. According to the results, supply chain development strategies are close to competitive strategies. Among the competitive strategies, these items are more important: "promote the planting of high-yielding and customer-friendly varieties", "promote modern irrigation practices such as drip irrigation", "construction of seedling nursery for ease of access to seedlings of high yielding varieties", "the assignment of public land with supportive facilities to increase the area of under cultivation", "encouraging agricultural university graduates to build mechanized orchard through especial support schemes", "organizing olive festivals to promote regional brand and increase sales".

Rural entrepreneurship is a new way in development theories for empowerment and capacity building in rural areas to change the current lifestyle to a desirable and humanistic pattern. One of the manifestations of entrepreneurship is pluriactivity. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze and ponder over the farmers' pluriactivity. Pluriactivity is defined as a combination of agricultural and non-agricultural activities that are run by the farmer's household. In other words, pluriactivity refers to the fact that one person (farmer) or group of people (farmers) are involved in different activities (agricultural and non-agricultural). These types of farmers are called pluriactive farmers. In general, the types of businesses alongside agriculture are classified into three categories: industry, agriculture (outside the main activity of the farmer) and services. Pluriactive farmers include-Farmer as Farmer;-Farmer as Entrepreneur;-Farmer as Contractor and-Rural Entrepreneur. Developing smallholder farmers' pluriactivity is crucial to promotion living standards, reducing urban and rural income disparities, controlling the urbanization process, and reducing the cost of social reproduction. Therefore, paying attention to the farmers' pluriactivity is a step forward towards sustainable rural development.

This contribution was conducted to take a grab at the expectations of agricultural students from entrepreneurship and self-employment lesson (the University of Maragheh). Most of the research has taken use of quantitative methodologies to address the research problem, and therefore, a qualitative methodology gap was recognized. Using exploratory case study, initially, the research objectives and the respective protocols were determined and verbal data were collected from agricultural students via convenient sampling method. The method triangulation was also used to increase the credibility of the data, which included notes, group discussions, and non-structured interviews. The heuristic units were derived from Atlas. ti (version. . ), thematic analysis, code formation, classes, and communication structures – – a semantic between the inferred concepts were developed. The approaches of peer-checking and member-checking were used to confirm the accuracy of the data. The findings indicate that students’ expectations from entrepreneurial and selfemployment lesson are reduced in the derived concepts, such as priority-centered, creativity, skill/pragmatism, extra-planning, communication-centered, compulsive, designing-centered, and continuous support. For future research, it is suggested that these concepts to be studied quantitatively. It is also recommended to the scholars and professors at the entrepreneurship centers of universities and higher education institutions to take into account and use the implications of the study in formulating the syllabus content of the lesson and in designing and establishing the orientation and in-service training of teaching for entrepreneurial novice professors.

Today, entrepreneurship has become the most strategic and important economic tool for advanced societies. Economic growth and development are due to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, entrepreneurial development is essential for achieving economic growth and development. The agricultural sector, which is known as the core of development, can be helpful and effective in promoting entrepreneurship. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting entrepreneurship development in developing and developed countries. For this purpose, information and data of developed and developing countries were used during the period to and the panel approach and fixed effects were applied to estimate the model. The results of the model estimation showed that human development and Heritage Foundation's economic freedom index variables have a negative effect on developing countries and positive effect on entrepreneurship development in developed countries. Therefore, economic freedom plays an important role in the development of entrepreneurship, and free economic zone improves business space and entrepreneurship development. Therefore, the implementation of the Policies of the constitution and privatization in the country should focus on reducing government involvement and promoting indicators of economic freedom and confidence in market forces in the country's development plans. The government can also promote entrepreneurship by investing in agricultural infrastructure, creating specialized agricultural complexes, applying incentive policies such as tax deductions or eliminating taxes for agricultural investors.