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Institute of Agribusiness Management, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati
Growing lifestyle diseases have pushed consumers towards eating healthy and quality foods. With the rich nutritive value and their adaptability to grow in various climatic conditions, it is inevitable to change the food habits towards millet based food systems. This is evident from the recent surge in demand for millets among consumers. So understanding the factors influencing millets consumption millet purchase is the need of the hour. The study was purposively carried out in Tirupati city of Andhra Pradesh. Data were collected from 120 sample respondents using a random sampling technique. The result of the study showed that most of the respondents consume millets and their products for their health and nutritional benefits.
KEYWORDS: Branding, Purchase pattern, Millets.
Agriculture is the largest enterprise in the nation. India’s agriculture sector consists predominantly of small and marginal farmers. Agriculture and its related sector employs more than 50 percent of the nation’s labor force and also contributes around 18 percent of the total nation’s GDP (Anonymous, 2018). India’s green revolution and the policy interventions such as input subsidy, price support, and procurement of food grains inclusion of PDS have largely focused on increasing the quantity of food production. However, not many policies have been drafted with the aim of increasing the quality of the food, i.e., nutritional security. Even though the government tries to overcome the issues through several national-level nutritional intervention programs, the prevalence of micronutrient malnutrition continues to be a major public health problem. Millets are one such important crops that could resolve the triple burden of under and over- malnutrition and hidden hunger.
Despite the many benefits of growing millets, there has been a downward trend in the consumption of millets in the country. Availability of other incentivized food grains, inconvenience in preparation, and changing customers’ preference toward western foods were the major demand side problems. However, the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability and risk in the existing food system. With the rich nutritive value, it is inevitable to change the food habits towards a
millet-based food system. This is evident from the recent surge in demand for millets among consumers. So understanding the factors influencing the purchase of millets is the need of the hour.
The study was purposively carried out in Tirupati city of Andhra Pradesh. Data was collected from 120 sample respondents. Primary data was collected through google forms by random sampling method where respondents were selected randomly with the help of well- structured interview schedule. The data was collected during the month of April to May, 2021. The objective of the study was clearly explained to the respondents to seek their response and crosscheck were made to minimize the errors. The respondents were interviewed on the general characteristics of respondents such as age, income, educational details, occupation, family size, family type and other details regarding factors influencing the purchase of branded minor millets. Percentage analysis and Garrett’s ranking technique were used to analyze the collected data.
In the context of Garrett’s ranking, the respondents were asked to rank each factor and those ranks would be converted into the present position by using the formula. “Garrett’s ranking technique was used to rank the preference indicated by the respondents on different factors. As per this method, respondents have been asked to assign the rank for all factors and the outcomes of such ranking have been converted into score values with the help of the following formula:
where,
Rij = Ranking given for the ith variable by the jth respondent
N = Number of variables ranked by the jth respondent.
With the help of Garrett’s table, the percent position estimated is converted into scores. Then for each factor, the scores of each individual are added, and then the total value of scores and mean values of the score are calculated. The factors having the highest mean value is considered the most important factor.
General Characteristics of the respondents
General characteristics such as age, gender, occupation, education, and monthly income of the respondents were collected and analyzed. The results of the study was presented in the figure below.
Most of the respondents were in the age group of 25-45 (52.50%), followed by consumers among the age group of above 45 (27.50%). Most of the consumers were women (55.00%). Among the consumers many of them had secondary level of education (37.50%), followed by graduation (34.17%). As many of the consumers were women, the results also seen influencing in occupation of the consumers as many of them were homemakers (35.00%), followed by private employees (27.50%). In relation to monthly income, most of the consumers fall in the group of INR 25,000 to 50,000 (30.00%), followed by the respondents in the income group of above INR 75,000 (25.00%). The results are in conformity with the findings of Amarapurkar and Banakar (2017) and Priya (2019).
The factors influencing the purchase of minor millets were ranked using the Garrett ranking technique and the results were listed in Table 1.
| S. No. | Reasons | Numbers | Frequency |
| 1 | Habit | 39.50 | 5 |
| 2 | Taste | 54.33 | 2 |
| 3 | Health benefits | 59.00 | 1 |
| 4 | Food preparation | 47.50 | 4 |
| 5 | Nutritional benefits | 49.67 | 3 |
From the Table 1, it could be inferred that the factor viz., health benefits to overcome the disease with a mean score of 59 was the major influencing factor among the respondents followed by taste and nutritional benefits (to maintain fitness) had Garrett mean score of 54.33 and
49.67 respectively were other major factors which influencing consumption by the respondents. Growing of awareness towards health may be the influencing reason for increased consumption of minor millets. Easy in preparation and habit had a Garrett mean score of 47.50 and 39.50 respectively were the least factors influencing the consumption of minor millets among the respondents. This is consistent with the results of previous studies by Alekhya and Shravanthi (2019) and Kalidas & Mahendran (2017).
The study on factors influencing purchase of millets was carried out to understand the governing factors that pushes customers to purchase and consume millets. Most consumers take millets for their health and nutritional benefits. Thus, companies could use these factors as their USP to sell their products in the market.
Alekhya, P and Shravanthi, A.R. 2019. Buying Behaviour of Consumers towards Millet Based Food Products in Hyderabad District of Telangana, India. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences. 8(10): 223-236.
Amarapurkar, S and Banakar, B. 2017. A case study of consumer preference towards foxtail millet products. International Journal of Commerce and Business Management. 10(2): 267–270.
Anonymous. 2018. Report of the Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
Kalidas, K and Mahendran, K. 2017. Research paper on buying behaviour of consumers towards instant millet based food products. Food Science Research Journal. 8(2): 196–202.
Priya, C. 2019. Consumer perception towards millet products. Infokara Research. 8(11): 356-364.