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Institute of Agribusiness Management, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati-517 502.
For farmers, selecting a dependable brand seed from many maize seed brands available has become a difficult task. A farmer can learn more by getting knowledge from a variety of sources, including dealers, other farmers and agricultural institutes. A farmer can select the best brand based on his budget and the appropriateness of the soil. In the eyes of farmers, a powerful and high-quality brand inspires confidence, comfort, trust, and dependability. The farmers perception of a brand is based on its appearance, functionality, emotional appeal and associations the brand creates with the customer..
KEYWORDS: Brand preference, brand loyalty, buying behaviour.
Maize is referred as the “Queen of Cereals” internationally because it has largest genetic yield potential of all the cereals. The origin of maize crop is in tropical zone of South America. It is a tropical plant and prefers warm humid weather. Maize serves as a basic raw material for hundreds of industrial goods, including starch, protein, oil, food sweeteners, alcoholic beverages, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, film, gum, textile, packaging, and paper sectors.
Seed is a fundamental resource that plays a crucial role in agriculture. These seeds serve as the foundation for successful agricultural production and contribute significantly to the quality and productivity of the harvested crops. Consumer buying behaviour refers to the actions and decisions made by individuals when purchasing products. Several factors influence consumer buying behaviour like personal factors, psychological factors and situational factors. Consumers go through a decision making process when making a purchase. This process is known as their buying behaviour.
Bapatla district was purposively selected as it is one of the highest maize producing district. Bapatla district has a total area of 29,260 hectares and production of 3,05,913 tonnes. (District handbook of statistics Bapatla
– 2022). In the second step two mandals with highest production were selected purposively. The two selected mandals in the district were Tsundur and Bhattiprolu. In the third step two villages from each mandal were selected based on highest maize production. Thus totally four villages were selected for the study. The selected villages were Edlapalli, Pedagadelavarru, Peddapulivarru and Bhattiprolu. From each village 30 farmers were selected randomly. The total sample size of farmers was 120.
Weighted average score method was used to rank preference of different brands used by the farmers in the study area.
Weighted average score =∑wx/∑w
where ,
w : Weighted factor
x : No of factors
Brand preference was analyzed and from the Table 2., P 3396 has score of 17.67 which ranked first, Deklab 9108 ranked second with score 17.22, NK 6802 ranked third with score 16.72, PAC 751 ranked fourth with score 16.14, NS 8585 ranked fifth with score 15.44, KMH 8333 ranked sixth with score 14.64, Siri 4527 ranked seventh with score 14.58 and Rasi 4212 ranked eigth with score
13.61. P 3396 brand is mostly preferred by many farmers in the study area because of its high yield and resistance to pest and disease.
The data revealed that the most common source of information for farmers is their relatives and fellow farmer friends,( 37.5%). Agri fairs are the second most significant source, providing information to 18.33 per cent of the farmers, followed by dealers, demonstration, television, newspaper, booklets with 16.67, 10.00, 8.33, 5.00, 4.17 respectively.
It is inferred that P 3396 brand for 4kg is Rs.1700, study shows that because of its characteristics pest and disease resistance and high yield potential it is preferred by majority of farmers in the study area. The cost of Deklab 9108, NK 6802, PAC 751, NS 8585, KMH 8333 and Siri 4527 was 2000,1400,1300,1000,1640 and 1482 respectively. The cost of Rasi Rs.4212 was Rs.750 and it was least in the study area.
Based on mean scores farmers preference for different maize brands ranked P 3396 of PIONEER in first position with highest score, followed by Deklab of Bayer in second position.
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