For past many years across the globe, agriculture productivity has become a major area of concern. Many challenges such as agriculture losing its attractiveness resulting in huge migration of out-of-school youth (OSY), traditional smallholder farmers ageing workforce ( average age of farmers being 65 years), low levels of mechanization, farmer's aversion to change traditional ways of farming, non-adherence to safety protocols, financial institutions not being pro-active, inadequate supply chain logistics, significant post-harvest losses due to inadequate storage facilities near the farms are few of the reasons constantly threatening the productivity. It is not the case that there is any shortage of donor money that is posing a problem. In fact, there is too much money flowing but not in the right direction. Added to that one notices too many pilot projects that do not graduate into scalable models. This is only helping fly-by-night cartels of consultants who are becoming wealthier at the cost of small-hold farmers.
A large number of agricultural technologies, products and services are available that could significantly eradicate poverty, malnutrition and dis-empowerment of marginal communities. These innovations are the result of investments by governments, development agencies and the private sector. However, transaction costs are prohibitively high for the private sector to reach these potential customers and government extension systems are challenged due to inefficiencies and lack of resources. It has been observed that some farmers adopt faster than others in the given ecosystem irrespective of the size of land holding and socio-economic conditions. These farmers always try to innovate and improvise with available resources to optimize the gains. These farmers are generally recognized as ‘progressive’ and ‘lead’ farmers. This breed of farmers is by and large far more enterprising and entrepreneurial!
One of the limiting factors therefore for any successful agricultural transformation involving farmers is the required behavioural modifications that would encourage the diffusion and adoption of technologies, best practices and system integration.
While I have presented many reasons why productivity is suffering one major area that needs a serious look is about the profile of the farmer itself. Who is the farmer working in his field, what is his psychological make-up, and does he have those leadership skills that make him an entrepreneur are some of the key questions that need study. While the environmental and surrounding factors play a role in productivity the psychometric profile of the farmer merits a critical analysis. Money in the wrong hands is not going to produce the desired outcome and this becomes a negative self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP). Therefore, the hypothesis for this note is this. A good smallholder farmer has to be a good entrepreneur having both the attributes of leadership and creditworthiness. During our various field surveys in Africa, India and Bangladesh we have observed that the process of choosing the farmers for the demonstration plots is highly impressionistic and mostly based on hearsay. Typically, the selection is based on the recommendation of the village elder or some such person who vouches for the farmer’s initiative, leadership etc. At times his local political connections sway the decision. It is our experience based on a significant sample that unless we apply psychometric analysis for identifying the attributes all efforts, howsoever altruistic, will come to a naught.
What is psychometric profiling? It is a method to objectively measure the skills, abilities, motivations and personality traits of an individual using simple batteries with multiple choice statements about their everyday life in a non-threatening manner. A reliable battery can throw light on the personality of the individual which can help us to identify entrepreneurship as well as provide feedback for developing the desired set of traits and behaviour patterns.
Through our research spanning many geographies, we have devised a set of batteries that measure with great statistical accuracy entrepreneurship and credit worthiness. The design of the batteries is based on the theory of the constellation of traits. Simply put this is based on the premise that there are few major traits that form a galaxy of core major traits at the nucleus and some minor traits and detection of the major trait will indicate the presence of many related sub-traits.
As per our research, a farmer-entrepreneur has to demonstrate the following:
i. Networking ability:
A farmer has to interact with several role holders. The extension agents, the input company reps, experts, helpers and so on. This calls for good interaction and networking ability. A loner or an introvert will have great difficulty interacting with others. Now in this networking ability, one has to have the right balance. There are some individuals who go overboard in making acquaintances while some become reclusive. Both manifestations are not desirable.
ii. Assertiveness:
It is important to be assertive and be able to express things clearly. There is a thin line between being assertive and being aggressive. Usually, aggressive people have great difficulty listening to counterviews as they tend to dominate the discussion all the time. What is needed is an ideal blend of expressing oneself without hesitation as well as listening to other points of view.
iii. Attachment:
A farmer must have this trait of putting his heart and soul into farming which comes with a genuine affection for things and people. On this trait, we have observed people fluctuating between two extremes of being too involved with others thus affecting their judgement or becoming a recluse. As mentioned earlier we look for a balance.
iv. Achievement:
The need for achievement is a primary human motive which can be defined as a need to achieve success or excel at a given task. It was David McClelland who asserted that while most people do not possess strong achievement-based motivation, those who do, display consistent behaviour in setting goals. Individuals satisfy their needs through different means and are driven to success for internal as well as external reasons. Those who have a high degree of need for achievement (N Ach) set challenging but realistic targets. In this sense, they are different from gamblers or foolhardy risk-takers. They set achievable goals which they can influence with their effort and ability. This result-driven approach is almost invariably present in the personality makeup of all successful business people and entrepreneurs.
v. Locus of Control:
Locus of control refers to the extent to which a person believes they can control events affecting them. Individuals who believe that they can control what happens to them are “Internals” or internally motivated and have an Internal locus of Control. Those who believe that outside factors such as luck, fate or external elements control their life are “Externals” or externally motivated and have an External Locus of Control. Empirical evidence suggests that those who have internal locus of control, display high initiative and are more likely to be successful entrepreneurs. They believe that their success or failure is a direct outcome of their action or inaction. They do not attach much importance or significance to luck or fate in their scheme of things.
vi. Conscientiousness:
Conscientiousness implies being perfect in any assignment. Such individuals do believe in hard work and planning. They are disciplined and organized in various tasks/projects that they undertake. Being cautious is also one of the aspects of conscientiousness. Usually, a credible borrower is a very conscientious one and from that viewpoint, we need to assess the borrower on this attribute of personality.
vii. Influence/Dominance:
In society, the relative position of an individual is determined by the structure of the society and the relative importance given to various occupations. Domination is the condition of having control or power over people or things. Like many other needs of humans, the need for dominance is a motive to acquire a dominating position in society. An entrepreneur controls his or her work and is perceived to have relatively more power over the events in their life than a salaried person. Also, people who don’t want to be in a subordinate position or don’t want to take orders from anyone else tend to work for themselves. A high need for dominance is a key attribute of a successful entrepreneur.
viii. Passion for Work:
An individual’s passion for his or her work comes from self-motivation to work more to achieve the target /goal. It creates an insatiable hunger for excellence. However, many people do not enjoy their work and do it to earn their livelihood, rather than out of interest. For entrepreneurs, being passionate about their work is not only important but crucial because it directly affects their enterprise. They constantly need to discover new ways to sustain and expand their business, maintain their client base and look for new opportunities. If they are not enjoying the work they are doing, it may result in failure.
ix. Self-Efficacy:
It is defined as people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-Efficacy beliefs determine how people think, feel, motivate themselves and behave. Entrepreneurs are perceived as having a high level of assurance in their capabilities and who approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided. They set for themselves challenging goals and maintain a strong commitment to them when met with failure, they heighten and sustain their efforts and quickly recover their sense of efficacy after it Also they attribute failure to insufficient efforts or lack of knowledge and skills which they think can be learned.
x. Business Skills:
To run any enterprise successfully one needs to have few business skills. A few of the important and critical business skills are the ability to plan and set goals, the ability to motivate and network with colleagues and customers, time management, team building and prudent fiscal discipline.
xi. Ethical & Honest Behaviour:
While Business Skills denote the ability, present or absent in the borrower ethics and honesty represent the willingness element of the personality. Our research indicates that conscientiousness is the most accurate predictor of ethical and honest behaviour.
xii. Agreeableness:
This trait reflects individuals adjusting their behaviour to suit others. High scores are typically polite and like people. Low scores tend to ‘tell it like it is’. A hard-nosed businessman will not hide the facts and he will face the reality as it comes.
xiii. Openness to ideas:
This is the personality trait of seeking new experiences and intellectual pursuits. High scores may dream a lot. Low scores may be very down to earth. Creditworthy people must have their feet on the ground.
We measure these traits using our proprietary psychometric tool mpower-u® and plot the respondents in three bands viz., Champions, Masters and Rookies. The mpower-u® consists of two indices: The Business Excellence Index (BXI) for entrepreneurial capability and the Creditworthiness Excellence Index (CXI) for determining creditworthiness. The BXI-CXI score also reveals the capacity development measures required so that entrepreneurs remain focused and competitive in their respective businesses while continually improving their performance (e.g., leadership, management effectiveness, networking ability, assertiveness, negotiation capability, etc. are the most effective capacity elements of successful and sustainable entrepreneurship). The mpower-u® tool is inclusive in nature, as it helps candidates to identify the learning pathways so that Rookies can be moved upwards to Masters and Masters to Champions! The mpower-u® tool tracks and manages performance through the Key Performance Indicators across the activity life cycle helping farmers to become profitable.
Now to conclude a little bit about the intriguing title of this article ‘The Ghost in the Machine’. It was Arthur Koestler who in 1967 wrote his famous work using this title. He was indicating the presence of consciousness (ghost) present all the time in the body (machine). It is our considered opinion that agriculture can succeed if we are able to identify the ghost(entrepreneurship) in the smallholder farmers (machine) and once identified all the other interventions can follow. In the absence of this most critical identification, all the other steps will not yield the desired results. Psychometric profiling is the most reliable way to catch and tame the ghost.
