Undergraduate Perceptions on Agripreneurship: Case of Final Year Agriculture Undergraduates in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Agripreneurship is identified as a major pillar of entrepreneurship and it plays a major role in the economy in different ways. However, the participation of educated youth in the sector seemed to be lacking over the past period. availability of low economic opportunity became a main reason for that. However, participation of educated youth in agriculture is very important. Because they are the future of the country. The main objective of this study was to explore the agripreneurial intentions among final-year agricultural undergraduates in state universities in Sri Lanka. This study mainly concerned how socio-demographic factors and perceptions influence agripreneurial intention. The research mainly expects to enhance the agripreneurial intention among agricultural undergraduates for future development of the agro-industry. The human cognitive approach was used as the theoretical framework to identify the linkage between agripreneurial intention of undergraduates’ perceptions and socio-demographic factors and the multiple linear regression model was used as the statistical model. The total population was nearly 1100 and the study used data from 300 final-year agricultural undergraduates. Research was conducted quantitatively, and simple random sampling technique was used as the method. Data were collected by employing an online survey. The study identified that individual and economic perceptions have a positive and significant impact on agripreneurial intention while, there is no impact of socio-perceptions, gender, and family business history on agripreneurial intention. According to the results, some suggestions were made to enhance the individual and economic perceptions towards agripreneurship among agricultural undergraduates. Among them conducting awareness programs by taking a successful agripreneur role model as resource person and government intervention can be seen good strategies for positively influencing agripreneurship.