Sustaining Smallholder Farming through Collective Action and Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial smallholder farmers face constraints tapping into market opportunities due to lack of knowledge, high transaction costs, and resource limitations. Collectivizing smallholders to operate enterprises collaboratively could overcome some of these constraints. This chapter describes the various forms of collective smallholder enterprises operating in India and summarizes the opportunities and challenges of collective entrepreneurship in agriculture, focusing on the Indian social context. The chapter concludes with some promising avenues for accelerating collective entrepreneurship.