Aged 25, of village Paschim Surendranagar, district South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, Dipak belongs to a poor family with only two-and-a-half bighas (less than an acre) of agricultural land. He lives with his parents, elder brother, sister-in-law and their children. They grow paddy and betel leaf and somehow manage their family of nine on a meagre income. Sometimes the family starves; they have to work hard the whole year to earn their livelihood. They also had to take a loan from a moneylender in cumulative interest. Dipak passed school in 2005 and involved himself in agricultural activities and assisted his father and elder brother. As he was interested in betel leaf plantation, he attended the Agro-based Entrepreneurship Development Programme from 19–23 January 2009, organised by Sundarban Rural Development and Training Centre in collaboration with Vishwa Yuvak Kendra, New Delhi. He learnt in detail about betel leaf plantation from the faculty as well as from the experienced participants present. After receiving training he started the plantation of betel leaf using the knowledge and skills he acquired during the training. His monthly income increased to Rs. 4,000 through the sale of betel leaves. He is planning to experiment with other varieties of betel leaf for gaining a higher market price. Now his family is being managed well with children’s education, repayment of loan, medical expenses and so on. Other farmers seek his advice. Dipak gratefully acknowledges that the training on Agro-based Entrepreneurship Development has changed their standard of living.

Arun belongs to a very poor family. He lives in a village named Uttar Gopal Nagar in the district South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Due to poor economic conditions, he had to bear a lot of hardship and suffering from his early childhood days and was compelled to assist his father in Green Success agricultural work along with his studies. He even used to work as an agricultural labourer to earn for his family of eight. Despite many hurdles, Arun continued his studies and after passing the Higher Secondary examination he got admission in college for Geography Honours. Though he started home tuition in addition to agricultural activities, it was insufficient to meet the expenses required for his studies. Then he started a poultry farm on a small scale, which was profitable and later on it was extended with a loan taken from others. It was like God’s gift and from the profit of Rs. 20,000 in a year, the education expenditure was managed and he completed college. Arun came to know from one of his friends about the Agro-based Entrepreneurship Development Programme, which was organised by Vishwa Yuvak Kendra, New Delhi, in association with Sunderban Rural Development and Training Centre from 19–23 January 2009. By attending the programme he learnt skills, knowledge and techniques on fish rearing. In the last year he did fish rearing in two ponds of about 10 and 17 decimal, respectively, and earned Rs. 40,000. His success has inspired others. He would like to experiment with rearing coloured fish, which has got a good demand in big cities. It also gives very good profits. Arun said that the Agro-based Entrepreneurship Development Programme had opened his eyes. The ponds, which brought him good profit, were completely unutilised earlier.