Entrepreneurial potential of small scale beekeeping in rural India: a case in Kanniyakumari district, Tamil Nadu

About half of India’s population is supported by agriculture. Development of any nation depends primarily on the role played by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship development among rural people is increasingly being recognized as a means of overall development of rural community. Small and medium scale agri-enterprises play an important role in creating employment opportunities in rural area. Beekeeping is one such remunerative agri-enterprise. At global level honey production from India is very small; among the states Tamil Nadu stands rank second in honey production. Hence, the present study was undertaken with the following objectives; to assess the entrepreneurial potential of beekeepers in Kanniyakumari district. It has nine blocks and village having maximum number of beekeepers was selected from each block. In the next stage of sampling, 50 per cent beekeepers from each village were selected using simple random sampling. Thus, a sample of 213 respondents was selected for data collection using a pretested interview schedule. On the basis of the findings it is concluded that majority of the beekeepers had high level of economic motivation, need for achievement and risk taking ability. On the other hand, it was found that majority of the respondents had only medium level of innovativeness and self-confidence. Overall entrepreneurial potential of majority of the beekeepers was high.