Forest Enterprise Management

Course notes for MDS 1202 Entrepreneurship Development and Business Management (2+1), B.Sc. (Hons.) Forestry

Authors

Mrs. Smija P K

Dr. Shamna N

Published

25 October 2026

Welcome

Welcome to Forest Enterprise Management, the online course book for MDS 1202 Entrepreneurship Development and Business Management, taught to B.Sc. (Hons.) Forestry students of Kerala Agricultural University.

A teak plantation, a plywood mill, a women’s honey-collection group and a tribal producer company are all forest enterprises. Each has to plan production, organise people, raise and use money, find buyers, survive crises and fit into a longer supply chain. This book follows those six functional areas of management through real forest-based enterprises, from the haats of Jharkhand and the community forests of Nepal to Kerala’s timber e-auctions and its online forest-produce brands.

Authors

Kerala Agricultural University logo

Mrs. Smija P K and Dr. Shamna N
Assistant Professors
Central Training Institute, Mannuthy
Thrissur 680 651, Kerala
Kerala Agricultural University

The course at a glance

Table 1: Course details
Course number MDS 1202
Course title Entrepreneurship Development and Business Management
Credit hours 3 (2+1)
Programme B.Sc. (Hons.) Forestry
Prepared by Mrs. Smija P K and Dr. Shamna N, Assistant Professors
Institution Central Training Institute, Mannuthy, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

About this book

The book applies the functional areas of enterprise management (production and materials, personnel, finance, marketing, crisis management and supply chain management) to forest-based enterprises. Each chapter begins with the foundational concepts of its functional area. It then contrasts timber-based enterprises with non-timber forest product (NTFP) and community-based enterprises, draws on published case studies from India and other countries, and closes with discussion questions for classroom use.

In-text citations and the consolidated list of references at the end of the book follow the APA style (7th edition). Every citation is a link to its entry in the References.

How to use this book

  1. Read the chapter before the class, so that class time can go into discussing the cases rather than describing them.
  2. Watch for the coloured boxes. Teaching points and insights draw the general lesson out of a case; case study boxes hold the detailed examples.
  3. Work through the Discussion questions in each section. They are meant for group discussion in class and have no single correct answer.
  4. Use the Chapter Summary at the end of every chapter for revision. Answers to the fill-in-the-blank questions are given at the end of each chapter.

Acknowledgements

This book is based on the course notes Forest Enterprise Management prepared by Mrs. Smija P K and Dr. Shamna N, Assistant Professors, Central Training Institute, Mannuthy (2026). The notes have been reorganised and converted into an online book for the MeLON platform.

Published on MeLON

MeLON logo

This book is published on MeLON (Module for e-Learning & Online Notes), the online learning platform of the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Kerala Agricultural University. MeLON makes course notes freely available to students as online books that can be read on any device.