Volume : 2 | Issue : 6 | June 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8160

Research Paper

Management

Consumer Buying Behaviour towards Agriculture Culture Inputs: An Empirical Study in Rural Area of Bardoli Dharmraj Solanki Nilay V. Panchal Pratik Desai
ABSTRACT Asst. Prof., Department of Management, B.V.Patel Institute of BMC & IT, Uka Tarsadia University,Tarsadi,Bardoli. Asst. Prof., Department of Commerce, B.V.Patel Institute of BMC & IT, Uka Tarsadia University,Tarsadi,Bardoli. Asst. Prof., Department of Accountancy, DRB Commerce College,Veshu,Bharthan,Surat.

This paper aims to identify the factors that affect consumers purchasing behavior towards Agriculture inputs like fertilizer, seeds, agrochemicals, oils and lubricants etc. Buying behavior refers to the act of consumers obtaining and using goods and services and the decision process that determines these acts. Buying decision is a set of many decisions which may involve a product, brand, style, quality, dealer, time, price and mode of payment. Price is the most important consideration at the time of purchasing agriculture inputs followed by packaging and branding, fair billing and home delivery are considered relatively less important. An attempt had been made to find out the problems faced by the farmers and this study will also help to understand the factors affecting the buying behavior of farmers toward Agriculture inputs.

KEYWORDS: Agriculture Inputs, farmers, buying behavior
INTRODUCTION Agriculture inputs are broadly classified into consumable and durables. Consumables comprises inputs like seeds, fertilizers, agrochemicals, oils and lubricants, whereas durables includes tractor, Agriculture machinery (threshers, harvesters etc.), agro implements and tools like cultivators, wheel harrow etc. In Gujarat both cooperative societies and retail outlets provides a wide range of product assortments such as fertilizers, pesticides, farm implements, seeds, lubricants and also provide financial services. BY the view point of farmer buying decision of agriculture inputs is a set of many decisions which may involve a product, brand, style, quality, dealer, time, price and mode of payment. This study helps to company, to set up the price for their agri products, also company can approach to co-operative society to sell their product because most of the farmer purchases agri inputs from co-operative society. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY: a. Primary objective: To study the buying behavior of agriculture culture input customer, their responsiveness towards the agriculture cultural information, and the problems they face while the purchase. b. Secondary Objectives:  Studying factors such as sources of information.  Factors important while purchasing agriculture inputs.  Problems faced by customers in purchasing agriculture inputs. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Sampling Design Sample size: 100 Sampling unit: Farmer of Bardoli region Sampling Method: Non-Probability convenience Instrument for Data Collection: Structured questionnaire LIMITATION OF STUDY:  This study is limited only for the Bardoli regions.  The sample size is very small and the result of research may not be applied to the population.  Sometimes respondents may give biased opinion. TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF DATA ANALYSIS The Statistical Analysis carried out in the study is being done using MS-Excel and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) Software. The Statistical techniques like: Chi-square test. Analysed & interpreted data have been presented in the form of tables, charts and figures. Figure 1 Sources of information. A study suggests that out of 100 respondents 43% of the respondents preferred T.V. as their main source of information under the media sector, next came posters with 26%, 19% of the total was occupied by magazines as more and more young people were joining these sector, radio accounted for around 7%, less were inclined towards internet which ranged only 3% and 2% got information from other sources. The above analysis shows that majority of respondents got agro information from T.V. as their media source. Table No: 2 Importance Factors while purchasing Agri-Inputs. Importance Factors Price Packaging N.O.R 87 25 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS: Table No: 1 Sources of information. Sources of information. T.V Internet Radio Posters Magazine Others N.O.R 43 3 7 26 19 2 Percentage 43 03 07 26 19 02

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Volume : 2 | Issue : 6 | June 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8160

Quality Brand Credit Facility

80 50 68

Figure 3 Problems faced by customers in purchasing agriculture inputs. The above analysis shows most of customers face price problems when purchase agri inputs and quality related with price. SUGGESTIONS  The various agri input related companies should focus more on price reducing concepts and focus less on packaging.  Companies can introduce various selling techniques through their private caravan as remote area farmers aren’t privileged with the various agri input services.  The concept of E – SELLING is in emergence of introduction as more and more literate people are entering the farming field.  Those companies wanting to establish their name in agro sector can start with various price incentive schemes as more farmers are dependent on the price of the product.  To focus more on T.V. and radio related advertisement as they are mainly preferred.

Figure 2 Importance Factors while purchasing Agri-Inputs. From above analysis on basis of multiple responses, find that 87 respondents consider price was importance factor, 25 respondents packaging, 80 respondent’s quality, and 50 brands while 68 credit facility. The study show that most of customers focus on Price, Quality and Credit facility while purchasing agri-inputs. Table No: 3 Problems faced by customers in purchasing agriculture inputs. Problems faced by customers Price Different Names Less Knowledgeable Bargain With Quality No Other Medium Less Expert Advice No discounts Inconvenience N.O.R 75 29 33 53 38 45 50 46

CONCLUSIONS Conclusions are the actual results of the study. It is guide the company as well as researcher to act accurately for future course of action. The conclusion of above study is given below.    It can be concluded from the result that the respondents were mainly purchasing the agri inputs from the cooperative societies of their area. Major reasons for purchasing from cooperative societies included fairness in billing and credit facilities given to the farmers. From the above results, it can be stated that agri inputs remain a price-sensitive market as factors like quality; brand and packaging are considered less important.

REFERENCES

1. Leon G.Schiffman, (2007), Consumer Behavior, 9th Edition, pp.369-380, Pearson Education, New Delhi. | 2. Beri G.C (2009), Marketing Research, 4th Edition, pp.369-380, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi. | 3. M. Bala Swamy, T. Anil Kumar and K. Srinivasa Rao (2012). The paper entitled “Buying Behaviour of Consumers towards Instant Food Products” available at http://ijrct.org/documents/1000006.pdf. | 4. J.P. Britz,(2011).The paper entitled “Feed buying behaviour of small-scale broiler farmers” available athttp://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/7328/Britz_JP.pdf?sequence=2. |

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