FARMERS’ AND DEALERS’ SATISFACTION AND BRAND PREFERENCE FOR SEED DRILL IN RAJKOT AND JUNAGADH DISTRICTS OF GUJARAT
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Date
2017-06
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AAU, Anand
Abstract
Mechanization has an important role to play in Indian agriculture. Given the low levels of mechanization in Indian farming, there is high scope to improve level of mechanization. The fast changing economic environment globally as well as locally, has a strong bearing on the perception of customers, dealers and other stakeholders in any industry including farm machinery industry. Scanty literature is available to understand the dynamic change in farm machinery industry with focus on market.
The study entitled “Farmers’ and dealers’ satisfaction and brand preference for seed drill in Rajkot and Junagadh districts of Gujarat” is part of a project undertaken for Tirth Agro Technology Pvt. Ltd. (SHAKTIMAN), based in Rajkot, Gujarat.
The Project was undertaken with the basic objectives of studying the farmer’s and dealer’s satisfaction level for mechanical seed drill of major companies; analysing the brand preference for mechanical seed drill and identifying the problem faced by farmers using mechanical seed drill in Junagadh and Rajkot districts. The study area consisted of 160 users and 40 non users of mechanical seed drill selected from 8 tehsils and 16 villages two selected districts. Both, primary as well as secondary data were used to achieve the stipulated objectives of the study. Primary data were collected with help of schedule while secondary data were collected from the relevant publications, apart from the records maintained by private and government organizations. Descriptive statistics, Likert scale and Garett ranking were used to analyse the data.
In Saurashtra region, majority of respondents sowed cotton, groundnut and wheat. As per ministry of agriculture, in Gujarat, there has been steady shift from animal power to electro-mechanical power. According to survey, 82% respondents had self-
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propelled farm equipments, while 80% respondents had mechanical seed drill as sowing equipment.
The major brands involved in mechanical seed drills manufacturing are: (1) Khedut agro (2) Dharti engineering (3) Mausam agro Pvt. Ltd. (4) Kranti agro engg. (5) Kisan agro industries (6) Gujarat agro. (7) Bharat agro engg. (8) Shapar agro enterprise (9) Bhumi agro industries and (10) Ramdev agro engineering.
The study revealed that before buying the mechanical seed drill, customers’ major consideration was seed placement at proper depth, and it was given highest rating by all sampled customers, followed by spacing adjustment, multi crop usage, hopper capacity, spare part availability, and metering device in that order. Other major consideration were recommendation of relatives/friends/other villagers and its efficiency. Besides, there were some other factors which influenced the buying behaviour of the customer. These include: brand name, seed rate, price, and product appearance.
Likert scale was used for analysing customers’ satisfaction level towards seed drill of various companies. It was found that Dharti’s respondents were fully satisfied with the ‘quality of material’ and its ‘efficiency’ attribute, Khedut agro’s respondents were fully satisfied with the ‘hopper capacity’ attribute, Mausam agro’s respondents were fully satisfied with the ‘metering mechanism’ attribute, and Kranti agro’s respondents were fully satisfied with the ‘multi crop usage attribute’.
As far as dealers’ satisfaction level towards the brands was concerned, for the ‘profit margin’, dealers were fully satisfied with the Khedut agro and for the ‘Company support’ dealers were fully satisfied with the Mausam agro engineering. With respect to ‘efficiency’ attribute, dealers were fully satisfied with the Dharti agro and for the ‘Price’ attribute, dealers were fully satisfied with the Kranti agro engineering.
With regard to brand preference level towards major brands of mechanical seed drill, Garett ranking method was used. As per this method, Dharti agro got highest score for ‘spare parts availability’ attribute and Mausam agro got highest score for ‘Sales promotional’ attribute. Kranti agro and Bharat agro got highest score for ‘price’ and ‘after sales service’, while Khedut agro got highest score for ‘good behaviour of dealer’.
The most commonly used promotional tool in the study area was demonstration of seed drill in villages, followed by Wall painting and distribution of pamphlets.
As per the survey, majority of farmers faced the problem of improper germination of seed, blockage of tubes due to fertilizer clods, lack of signal device at zero seed availability, less hopper capacity and improper placement of seed.
When dealers were asked about expectation from different companies, they told that general problems should be resolved and companies should apply sales promotional
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tools. They also told that company should start the training program for dealers’ staff and farmers for achieving better efficiency of seed drill.
Based on the findings, It was suggested that problem of blockage of tubes due to fertilizer clods should be resolved through effective agitator, which is driven through side wheel gear drive mechanism. To get an idea of ‘low seed level’, company should introduce “Low seed level” acoustic alarm for the problem of lack of signal device at zero seed availability. For the problem of hopper capacity, companies should increase the volume of hopper capacity and for the multi crop usage, companies should start the use of ‘Internal Double run type’ seed metering devices which has double faced wheel, one face has a larger openings for larger seeds and one face has smaller openings for smaller seeds. To achieve higher efficiency, company must focus on using light weight and quality fibre, That will help in covering larger area in lesser time
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Keywords
Business management, study