EXPLORING THE SCOPE OF VILLAGE ASSOCIATE BUSINESS MODEL TO STRENGTHEN FARMER DEVELOPMENT CENTERS (FDCs) IN ANDHRA PRADESH STATE
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Date
2021-10-04
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ACHARYA N G RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
Abstract
The present study “Exploring the scope of village associate business model to strengthen the farmer development centers (FDCs) in Andhra Pradesh state” was mainly aimed to know the use of agri-inputs, technology adoption, technical guidance to farmers, dissemination of agricultural information, live demonstrations, etc.. as and are useful for academics, farmers, FDCs, Agri startups and agriculture department.
FDC operating in Guntur district is purposively identified for the study based on volume of business and area of coverage. As FDC is catering its services to two mandals namely, Amarthalur and Tsundur mandals these mandals were purposively identified for the study. Five villages were selected from each identified mandal, total number of villages selected for the study were ten. Randomly twenty farmers were selected. Thus the total sample of the study was 200.Detailed information was collected from the sample farmers pertaining to the year 2017-18.Percentage analysis, cross tabulation, chi square and simple ranking were employed to analyse the objectives.
Products and services offered by the Farmer Development Centers are seeds, plant nutrients, plant protection chemicals, farm tools and machinery, post harvest solutions, livestock feed solutions, financial services and personal safety solutions. The activities which were performed at FDC Amarthalur were promotional activities, sales activities, information dissemination through demonstrations and distributing pamphlets about the chemicals. At selected FDC seed business sales accounted for about 10.78 per cent in the total business turn over, both plant nutrient and plant protection business
accounted for about 7.37 per cent and 58.67 per cent in the total business, farm tools and machinery, post harvest solutions and livestock feed solutions businesses accounted for 2.30 percent, 3.71 per cent and 17.16 per cent respectively.
Socio economic characteristics of sample farmers revealed that 54.5 per cent sample farmers were having education qualification up to secondary level, 55per cent of sample framers were above 45 years of age, family size of 57.5 per cent of sample farmers were of 4- 6 members, and 54 per cent were having 20-30 years of farming experience.
Cross tabulation between operational land holding pattern Vs source of seed purchase and cross tabulation between farming experience Vs seed recommendations of sample farmers inferred that with increase in farming experience, the farmers dependency on others for seed recommendations had gradually been decreasing. Around 90 per cent of sample farmers expressed high and medium levels of satisfaction for seed quality and seed germination percentage, 97 per cent of sample farmers expressed high and medium levels of satisfaction for unique selling proposition and seed availability. Sample farmers major information needs for fertilizers were different compositions of fertilizers followed by dosage of application and timings of application of fertilizers. A significant difference existed between satisfaction level of sample farmers for fertilizers, with respect to age groups and farming experience. Sample farmers major information needs for pesticides were technical knowledge. Sample farmers were not much satisfied with pesticide related aspects like quality of information obtained from agricultural department and the existence of spurious products, and mere satisfied with the availability of pesticides in the market and quality of information obtained from input dealers.
The majority of sample farmers expressed the high quality of agricultural information received from input dealers, research station, mobiles, field days, television, farmer meeting and quality of information obtained from agricultural extension officers and fellow farmers was insufficient. Significant difference between farming experience and information needs of the sample farmers with respect to input availability, weather related and farm machinery services existed. The parameters required by sample farmers for preferring existing sources for purchase of agri inputs were long lasting relationship with input dealers followed by accessibility to input sources and purchase of inputs on credit basis. Around 35 per cent of sample respondents were ordering inputs through mobiles. Sample farmers had not expressed much brand loyalty to agri inputs as they were much influenced by promotions and discounts offered by agri-input companies and dealers in the open market.
Description
EXPLORING THE SCOPE OF VILLAGE ASSOCIATE BUSINESS MODEL TO STRENGTHEN FARMER DEVELOPMENT CENTERS (FDCs) IN ANDHRA PRADESH STATE