International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Arrabothu Dharani, Dr. Janaki Srinath Puskuri, T Kamalaja, K Supriya and Babhulgaonkar Mansi

abstract
Survey was conducted on 30 women small business owners dealing with traditional Telangana foods by interview method with a structured questionnaire to study the difficulties they encountered with product preparation, packaging, storage, and quality. Traditional snacks like Appalu, Sakinalu, Garelu, Arisalu, Bundiladdoo, and Palliladdoo were the most popular and best-selling items, with demand peaking during festivals. Majority (50%) of the entrepreneurs have self-outlets, 46.6% of the entrepreneurs started their enterprise to be self-independent and only 6.66% of the entrepreneurs were handling business in partnership. Majority of the entrepreneurs (66.6%) were using rice flour, groundnuts and sesame as major raw ingredients. 83.33% of the entrepreneurs were using sunflower oil and 16.66% of entrepreneurs were using palm oil as frying medium. Majority of the entrepreneurs (60%) were using polyethylene covers and 40% of the entrepreneurs were using LDPE (Low Density polyethylene) for packaging of Appalu. Challenges faced with regard to the quality were rancidity (53.3%), changes in flavour (23.3%), and sogginess (23.3%). According to the survey, entrepreneurs are expecting mechanization to reduce drudgery because they are having difficulty preparing products manually, which causes physical exhaustion and back pain. They need proper packaging technology because they are having problems with breakage and storage. Many businesses prepare their products every day and sell them because they lack storage facilities, which hinders their ability to do business. Along with mechanization, local government policies and incentives are anticipated by entrepreneurs as potential means of fostering the expansion of their businesses.