Agricultural project entrepreneurship in Los Banos, Laguna [Philippines]: an exploratory study

According to the respondents, entrepreneurs should have the following characteristics: Good/wise manager, hardworking, good public relations, business-like, risk-taker, open minded, possession of technical knowledge and skills, innovative, humble and thrifty. Entrepreneurs are owners (proprietors), administrators, implementors and decision-makers. In many instances, they are employers. All entrepreneurs in this study are bonafide residents of Los Banos [Laguna, Philippines] having been born and lived in the municipality for 37 years, on the average, representing both sexes. Their age ranged from 24 to 73 years or an average of 46.3 years. Majority were married, having 3 children on the average. They were predominantly Catholics. The educational level averaged 11 years for both husband and wife, which is equivalent to first year in college, although the educational attainment of the entrepreneurs ranged widely from Ph.D. holders to elementary graduate. Not anyone of them, however, had any formal training in agriculture although a few had attended non-degree training programs in some aspects related to their projects. Many entrepreneurs claimed that their living status is better off this time than before as they owned their house and lots, could send their children to school with not much financial problem and possessed some household appliances like TV, radio, stereo-component, refrigerators and stoves or ovens. Although entrepreneural projects are actually intended for service and cater to the needs/demands of clientele, generation of additional income motivated them to venture in entrepreneural projects and also, the enjoyment they have in managing the project and rearing the plants and flowers. Many entrepreneurs, however, had their major occupations, hence their entrepreneural project appeared to be a "sideline" activity. In all indications, the entrepreneurs have a thriving business as manifested by the generous volume of the present assets of sampled projects which ranged from P10,000 to P3,000,000 while the initial investment about five years ago was from P2,000 to P1,000,000. Entrepreneural projects in agriculture which required high initial investments were orchid culture (P1,000,000) and ornamental garden plants (P500,000) while projects which had relatively low initial investments were ornamental gardens, fish cage, duck raising for egg production and hog and poultry, which required only from P5,000 to P150,000. The initial investment for some of the entrepreneurs was not a problem because before they established the project, they already prepared for it, while the other entrepreneurs just expanded or reinforced the volume of what they already had