The Role of Government Assistance with Employment Creation in Small Business in Rural Areas
Across the world, rural areas face the same types of problems, such as little job availability, problems with modern infrastructure, and lack of service. However, rural areas also have a lot of potential in the areas of labor, available resources, and skill. The use of rural potential can be demonstrated through the establishment of small business enterprises located in rural settings that can create a more sustainable community by slowing down urbanizing due to their ability to create more durable businesses and better working conditions for rural constituents, as well as providing for them and leaving behind a legacy of family supporting workers.
The Advantages of Small Rural Businesses
Villages have a great advantage and good reason to put small business initiatives in place. For example, rural areas have a market, and a place to visit, as well as a healthy economy. Rural areas have a work force that is available, and that would like to improve the area economically, and in some areas, work that is available. Most villages and small areas also have a sustainable market, and provide some useful products. Rural markets may be small, but that is also a benefit, as it provides a place to start, and in time, expand to larger markets such as urban town and cities, as well as to international markets through the internet.
Agricultural processing units, dairy cooperatives, handicraft workshops, poultry farms, eco-tourism, and other similar small-scale manufacturing enterprises are popular forms of small businesses in rural areas. These types of businesses can employ several villagers including a considerable number of women and youths who are usually sidelined in employment opportunities.
Employment Opportunities Created by Small Cottage Industries.
Creation of employment is one of the most important advantages of small businesses in a village. The small business opportunities in villages are not as competitive as those in the cities where one is employed. These small businesses make it possible for people to find employment opportunities near their residential areas and help reduce the negative impacts of rural to urban migration.
The small food processing business can be used as an example. It can process fruits into jams, juices, and preserves and can employ people to work in the production of fruits, collection, and processing. Dozens of people are able to be supported by the business and hundreds purchased handicraft products such as baskets and traditional textiles.
Incentivizing Government Support
As envisioned, entrepreneurs in the village possess great potential, although they often lack the required capital, training, and access to markets. Government support can provide the necessary Financial assistance (gifts, subsidized loans, payments to support, etc.) to help villagers initiate or grow dormant businesses to obtain capital potential dormant businesses.
The government can assist in Funding
The construction of infrastructure, such as small factories, storage, and irrigation systems necessary to enhance production.
The provision of training programs which focus on modern production, quality control, digital marketing, and financial management.
The provision of technology which includes cost-effective machinery and digital platforms to enhance productivity and reach new markets.
The provision of marketing and distribution assistance to create brand awareness for village products and access new regional, national, and international markets.
The travel experiences of numerous countries show the potential for village economies to grow with adequate government support. In India, for example, the “Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana” program supports rural youth with the provision of skills training and small loans to promote self-employment and create other jobs in the village. Many other countries have demonstrated that the provision of funding, complemented with technical support, enhances outcomes for small businesses.
Social Benefits Beyond Employment
Village small businesses facilitate social development beyond job creation. When there is job stability for village workers, there is improvement in education, health, and housing. With steady income also comes empowerment of women, especially in households and communities where they are the primary decision-makers.
Also, village businesses enhance community cohesion. Cooperative models where village members collectively own and run a business enhance collaboration and mutual support with the business responsibility shared. This model of business also improves the local economy while creating local pride and ownership.
Challenges and the Need for Strategic Planning
Village small businesses have numerous disadvantages yet the advantages are immense. These disadvantages include limited infrastructure and highly seasonal agricultural products, high volumes of agricultural products are required, and limited access to remote and wide global markets. Success is stunted without appropriate planning.
Strategic Government Actions Are Needed. This includes local feasibility studies to determine priority business activities for villages, continuous and timely access to skill development programs, and credit. Success is also possible in these activities with public-private partnerships.
A Case Study – Transforming the Economic Base of a Community.
Picture a village of approximately 2000 people who have remained in the practice of subsistence farming, albeit on an informal basis. From government assistance, villagers set up a cooperative dairy unit. The beginning of this venture had 50 households contributing milk. The government sponsored the building of the processing plant, provided modern dairy industry equipment, and trained the villagers on industry dairy management and quality control.
After a year, the cooperative had 60 villagers employed in the processing, packaging, and marketing of the dairy products. A further 40 villagers were able to get a work as suppliers of fodder as well as transporters and vendors. The income the cooperative generated from the dairy products enabled households to afford to invest in more education for their children, better health care, and improvements to their homes. This project has also inspired a chain replication in the other nearby villages. This created a regional network of employment and business development.
Conclusion
Small rural village based businesses can have a large impact on rural economies, create small businesses, and reduce urban migration. With small targeted government sponsored funding, the untapped potential for a rural village to create sustainable businesses can be transformed.
The advantages are manifold: financial advancement, societal progress, the safeguarding of traditions, and sustainability of ecosystems. But, the triumph of the ventures goes beyond funding, investment, and financial resources. It requires careful design, proactive workforce capability enhancement, and accessibility of the market. Empathic governance recognizing the prospects of small businesses located in the rural and suburban areas provide not only rural community empowerment but also additional economic utility at the national level.
Institutional support of rural small businesses is the foundation of the inclusive vision of the future, where rural areas and small businesses no longer represent the lower end of the economic structure but the nucleus of progress and development. It demonstrates and reminds us that inclusive development is ideal and most effective when initiated from the lower levels of the economic structure.
