UAS-B woos women students to be agri-entrepreneurs

University holds entrepreneurship development programme to inspire them

"Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme for Agri. Graduates" held at UAS, GKVK Bangalore. Dr. K.Narayana Gowda, Vice Chancellor, UAS, GKVK and Ms. Rama Rani Tripathi, Manager, NRDC, New Delhi interaacting with the Agriculture students. Photo: K.Gopinathan

The University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore is going all out to urge women students to take up ‘agri-entrepreneurship'. To send out a strong message on this, the university organised a ‘Women entrepreneurship development programme' on Saturday, along with the National Research Development Corporation. The UAS-B aims to not only motivate them to take up agricultural entrepreneurship, but also to provide technical inputs on the potential areas in the agricultural sector suitable for commercial exploitation.

Nearly 200 women students, who are pursuing postgraduation or are in their final year of graduation, responded positively by participating in a daylong programme.

Experts from various fields, including Central institutions, industries, research organisations and banks interacted with the participants to create awareness about various aspects of agri-entrepreneurship, including facilities available from the government, financing schemes and the procedures to be followed.

Researchers from different areas pointed out potential areas suitable for setting up industries in the present market scenario. In addition, successful women entrepreneurs shared their experiences to inspire the students to take up enterprises.

Wrong notions

Speaking on the occasion, UAS-B Vice-Chancellor K. Narayana Gowda sought to dispel the myth that the agricultural sector was not profitable. He pointed out that the sector had greener patches in terms of employment and profitability.

In fact, certain areas in agriculture such as value addition and processing had huge potential for employment as well as income generation, he said.

Expressing happiness over the recent trend of women becoming successful agri-entrepreneurs, he pointed out that two women students from the university, who had been sent on special agricultural training to Israel, had told him that they wanted to become agri-entrepreneurs.

National Research Development Corporation manager Rama Rani Tripathi offered counselling to students on the subject. “It is true that risks are involved if you want to become entrepreneurs. But courage, a positive attitude and application of right technology will definitely help you become successful,” she said.

Agricultural technologies are in great demand by entrepreneurs as they touch everybody's lives, she added.