Employment Generation, Entrepreneurship Development, and Economic Gain in Aspirational Districts of West Bengal, India

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Abstract The Biotech-KISAN Hub programme implemented by the West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences (WBUAFS) represents a pioneering biotechnology-driven model for sustainable livelihood transformation in five aspirational districts of West Bengal—Nadia, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Malda, and Dakshin Dinajpur. The present study evaluates the programme’s impact on employment generation, entrepreneurship development, productivity enhancement, and economic gain across livestock and aquaculture systems. Integrated interventions encompassing elite germplasm dissemination, nutritional optimization, bio-probiotics, farm schools, digital advisory platforms, and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) were deployed among 2,180 farmers. Results indicated significant gains in productivity of Black Bengal goats (+ 8.87% body weight; +8.59% kidding rate), Vanaraja poultry (+ 17.95% growth; +14.71% egg production), and Indian Major Carps (+ 20.87% yield; +15.42% survivability). Annual household income increased by 30–40%, generating over 54,000 additional rural workdays annually. Women constituted 62% of beneficiaries, with 162 micro-enterprises and seven FPCs established. The study demonstrates that biotechnology-enabled convergence models aligned with DBT’s BioE³ framework (Economy–Environment–Employment) can deliver scalable, climate-resilient rural bioeconomy solutions in aspirational regions.
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Employment Generation, Entrepreneurship Development, and Economic Gain in Aspirational Districts of West Bengal, India | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Employment Generation, Entrepreneurship Development, and Economic Gain in Aspirational Districts of West Bengal, India Dr Keshab Chandra Dhara, Suprava Roy, Shrestha Roy, Dr. Paramita Dasgupta, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8487520/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The Biotech-KISAN Hub programme implemented by the West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences (WBUAFS) represents a pioneering biotechnology-driven model for sustainable livelihood transformation in five aspirational districts of West Bengal—Nadia, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Malda, and Dakshin Dinajpur. The present study evaluates the programme’s impact on employment generation, entrepreneurship development, productivity enhancement, and economic gain across livestock and aquaculture systems. Integrated interventions encompassing elite germplasm dissemination, nutritional optimization, bio-probiotics, farm schools, digital advisory platforms, and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) were deployed among 2,180 farmers. Results indicated significant gains in productivity of Black Bengal goats (+ 8.87% body weight; +8.59% kidding rate), Vanaraja poultry (+ 17.95% growth; +14.71% egg production), and Indian Major Carps (+ 20.87% yield; +15.42% survivability). Annual household income increased by 30–40%, generating over 54,000 additional rural workdays annually. Women constituted 62% of beneficiaries, with 162 micro-enterprises and seven FPCs established. The study demonstrates that biotechnology-enabled convergence models aligned with DBT’s BioE³ framework (Economy–Environment–Employment) can deliver scalable, climate-resilient rural bioeconomy solutions in aspirational regions. Animal Science Biotech-KISAN Hub BioE³ employment generation entrepreneurship livestock aquaculture rural bioeconomy Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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