Consumer Willingness to Pay for Underutilized Vegetables in the Badulla District
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Date
2020
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Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Sri Lanka is one of the countries that consist of a wide range of plant species and they can
be categorized as wild and domesticated plant species. Underutilized crops can be
described as the domesticated plant species which have been eventually declined their
importance for the society. The vegetable crops which are neither grown commercially in
large scale nor traded widely termed as “underutilized” vegetable crops. Nowadays,
consumers exhibit increased concern on the underutilized crops due to their medicinal
properties, other health benefits, and nutritional values. However, prices of these
underutilized vegetables at farmers’ markets and village fairs are low and unstable so that
the sellers cannot maintain competitive prices and profit margin for underutilized
vegetables. Therefore, this research was carried out to identify the consumer and
marketing mix factors that may be influential on consumers’ willingness to pay for
underutilized vegetables. To accomplish the objectives, a self-administered questionnaire
was prepared and a survey was conducted with 200 customers who visited the village fair
for purchasing vegetables in Badulla, Bandarawela, and Hali Ela divisional secretariat
area in Badulla district. For data analysis, the ordered logit model was applied. The results
of regression analysis revealed that consumer age, income, suffering from noncommunicable diseases by family members, number of children present in the family,
attitude towards health benefits of foods, knowledge on health foods, and marketing mix
factors were significantly associated with the consumer willingness to pay for
underutilized vegetables. Furthermore, the marginal effects were calculated to reveal the
probable impact of each significant independent variable on consumers’ levels of
willingness to pay for underutilized vegetables.
Keywords: Underutilized vegetables, Willingness to pay, Consumer factors, Marketing
mix factors, Ordered logit model
Description
Keywords
Agriculture, Marketing, Vegetable Cultivation