Effectiveness of e-marketing of cardamom in Kerala-an exploratory analysis

Abstract

The study entitled 'Effectiveness of e-marketing of cardamom in Kerala— an exploratory analysis' was conducted in Idukki district of Kerala during the year 2019-21 among the cardamom farmers undertaking conventional marketing as well as e-marketing of cardamom. The objective of the research was comparative assessment of the effectivencss of e-marketing and conventional marketing of cardamom as well as delineation of farmers' perception on benefits and constraints of e-marketing. Six farmers undertaking conventional marketing and six farmers undertaking e-marketing of cardamom each were randomly selected from ten panchayats, totaling the sample size to 120. The independent variables in the study selected through judges rating were age, education, area under cardamom cultivation, experience in cardamom cultivation, production of cardamom, price received, extension contact, attitude towards e-marketing, awareness on digital tools and adoption of digital tools, and dependent variable marketing effectiveness was measured using the index developed for the study. On analysis it was found that majority of the farmers undertaking conventional marketing (51.7%) and e-marketing (40%) belonged to middle age category. Majority (43.3%) of the farmers undertaking conventional marketing had high school level education and 58.4 per cent of the farmers undertaking e-marketing had degree and above level of education. Majority of the farmers undertaking conventional marketing were marginal farmers (31.7%) and farmers undertaking e-marketing had medium area (4-10 ha) under cardamom cultivation (35%). Majority of the fanners undertaking conventional marketing (55%) and e-marketing (45%) had medium level of experience (6-20 years) in cardamom cultivation. Majority of the farmers undertaking conventional marketing (43.3%) had low production of cardamom and fanners undertaking e-marketing (4803%) had medium production of cardamom. Majority of the farmers undertaking conventional marketing (73.3%) and e-marketing (36.7%) received a price between per kilogram of.cardamom. More than half of the farmers undertaking conventional (5166%) and e-marketing (51.6%) had medium level of extension contact. More than half of the

fanners undertaking conventional marketing (55%) had negative attitude towards emarketing and more than half of the farmers undertaking e-marketing (61.7%) had neutral attitude towards e-marketing. More than half of the farmers undertaking conventional (66.7%) and e-marketing (75%) had medium awareness on digital tools. Majority of the farmers undertaking conventional marketing (45%) and e-marketing (56.7%) had medium level of adoption of digital tools. Marketing effectiveness has been measured under seven components, four quantitative variables, viz., marketing channel, marketing cost, price spread and producer's share in consumer's rupee and three qualitative variables, viz., market information utilization, timeliness of marketing and ease of marketing. Based on factor analysis, the components were grouped into two factors contributing to a cumulative variance of 91.68 per cent. The factor loadings ofvariables showed that producer's share in consumer's rupee (96.4%) and price spread (94.2%) explained more than 90 per cent variance. Majority of the fanners undertaking conventional marketing had medium (46.7%) followed by low (41.7%) marketing effectiveness and fanners undertaking e-marketing had medium (53.4%) followed by high (38.4%) marketing effectiveness. The comparison between the marketing effectiveness of conventional marketing and e-marketing using z-test showed that there exists significant mean difference between the six components of marketing effectiveness for the two categories of respondents and their marketing effectiveness index scores. The results ofKarl Pearson correlation analysis revealed that out of 10 independent variables selected for the study, six variables were significantly related to the dependent variable marketing effectiveness. The variables, viz., price received, extension contact, attitude towards e-marketing and adoption of digital tools were significant at 0.1 % level of significance and education and awareness on digital tools were significant at 1 % level of significance. Majority of the farmers undertaking conventional marketing adopted marketing channel with five (41.7%) and six parties (41.7%) and farmers undertaking e-marketing adopted marketing channel with five parties (63.4%). Farmers undertaking e-marketing recei ved higher price g 1265.75) for their produce as compared to the fanners undertaking conventional marketing (?1083.75). Majority (71.7%) of the farmers undertaking emarketing store their produce and sells only at remunerative prices, whereas only 28.3 per cent of the fanners undertaking conventional marketing store their produce and wait for better price. Marketing effectiveness index scores of fanners undertaking e-marketing (67.6) was found to be higher than that ofthe fanners undertaking conventional marketing (53.9). Among the e-marketing platforms, social media (89.4) and websites (72.4) showed higher marketing effectiveness index score than e-auction (61). The major benefits of e-marketing as perceived by farmers were availability of proper transaction details and bills (83.3%) and assurance of timely delivery and prompt payment (80%). The major constraints of e-marketing as perceived by farmers were delay in payment up to 20-30 days after e-auction (66.7%) and disfress procurement of credit by the farmers from the auctioning agency to compensate for the delayed payment (60%). Mechanisms to ensure timely and prompt payment for the produce, separate eauctions for farmers and traders, ensuring remunerative base prices for cardamom, regulation and monitoring ofthe e-auction system by the Spices Board to reduce unhealthy practices, approval of registration of the cardamom lands by the Government, minimization of the formalities in credit disbursal by the banks, extending support to the fanner producer organizations (FPOs) to undertake value addition in cardamom and expansion of extension services in the realm of e-marketing are the key strategies to overcome the constraints in e-marketing. It could be concluded that the e-auction mechanism was introduced by the Spices Board for the benefit of both the farmers and traders by promoting healthy competition among bidders and monitoring the auction price elecfronically. But presently fanners are not completely satisfied with the system due to lack of remunerative prices and delayed payment. The scope of the other e-marketing platforms such as social media and websites need to be more popularized among the cardamom farmers.