Agro-enterprise development through Self Help Groups: Empirical insights from Sikkim

Abstract

In this paper we attempt to provide some empirical evidences of how adoption of agro-enterprises can be stimulated using finance and livelihood training via collective institutions like Self-Help Groups. Using a representative sample of 416 women SHG members drawn from all four districts of the north-eastern state of Sikkim, we find that the livelihood training workshops offered by the Self-Help Group Promoting Institutions (SHPIs) played a critical role in enabling the women members venture into agro-based microenterprises. In an emerging economic environment regulated by globalization and market integration, promotion of rural agro-enterprises can potentially address the problems of disguised unemployment in agriculture and lead to better price realization of agricultural produce.