Entrepreneurial Landscape of Farmers: A Comprehensive Review using Bibliometric and Systematic Analysis

Global population growth has led to a rise in food consumption, placing increasing pressure on the agriculture sector to meet this demand. Despite advances in technology, smallholder farmers continue to face financial challenges. Researchers studied farmers' entrepreneurship to address this issue and boost farmers' income. This systematic literature review aims to comprehensively examine the existing body of research about the domain of farmers' entrepreneurship. The review used the PRISMA method to collect the requisite data from reputable database sources, including Scopus and the Web of Science. The study primarily focused on 82 open-access research papers in scholarly journals. A bibliometric analysis was conducted to explore content and network patterns, followed by a thematic analysis of the selected papers. The findings present the application of various entrepreneurial theories in agriculture, highlighting the interplay between farmers' internal traits (intention, resourcefulness) and external factors (market, technology, policy). The reviewed papers employed a range of advanced analytical techniques. It also found that entrepreneurial traits help farmers respond to market changes and customer needs. Additionally, these traits help them adopt soil-specific farming strategies, new seed varieties and technical developments in agricultural operations. Entrepreneurial policies mostly favor large-scale and professional farmers. However, smallholder farmers struggle to capitalize on entrepreneurial opportunities. The review highlights a gap in the literature regarding the entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and aspirations of farmers and the impact of government support and existing facilities on smallholder farmer sustainable entrepreneurship. Future research should focus on understanding the enabling factors that help farmers adapt and thrive in the evolving agricultural landscape.