5635C0117028 PDF
5635C0117028 PDF
https://doi.org/10.15242/IJAAEE.C0117028 6
Int'l Journal of Advances in Agricultural & Environmental Engg. (IJAAEE) Vol. 4, Issue 1 (2017) ISSN 2349-1523 EISSN 2349-1531
https://doi.org/10.15242/IJAAEE.C0117028 7
Int'l Journal of Advances in Agricultural & Environmental Engg. (IJAAEE) Vol. 4, Issue 1 (2017) ISSN 2349-1523 EISSN 2349-1531
Postgraduate 59 13.6%
Residence
North 7 1.6%
South 8 1.8%
East 9 2.1%
Northeast 12 2.8%
Fig. 1 Percentage of rice purchase behavior.
West 2 0.5%
Fig. 2 shows the percentage of factors influencing rice
Occupation purchasing decision. The table reveals that the top factor
Official/State enterprise 123 28.4% influencing rice purchase decisions is flavor (46%), followed
by nutritional value (30%), price (16%) and popularity (5%).
Employee 203 46.9%
In addition, three percent of respondents purchased rice based
Business 50 11.5% on other factors such as leading supermarket promotions, rice
Housewife 6 1.4% softness (after cooking) and insufficiency of homegrown rice.
Retire 13 3.0%
Other 38 8.8%
Income
https://doi.org/10.15242/IJAAEE.C0117028 8
Int'l Journal of Advances in Agricultural & Environmental Engg. (IJAAEE) Vol. 4, Issue 1 (2017) ISSN 2349-1523 EISSN 2349-1531
Information 433 3.98 .902 respondents knew about organic rice (53.1%). The majority of
Novelty 433 3.48 .950 the 230 aforementioned respondents knew about organic rice
Organic 433 4.47 .733
through the media (62.7%), followed by recommendation
from other people (16.7%) and discovering on their own
TABLE III (20.6%) as shown in Fig. 3. For the respondents that knew
PRICE-RELATED FACTORS AFFECTING DECISIONS TO PURCHASE RICE about organic rice, up to 55.9 percent purchased organic rice
Factors N Mean Std. Deviation for consumption on a regular basis. Fig. 4 illustrates the
Quality 433 4.52 .609 reasons for purchasing organic rice. It can be seen that the
Quantity 433 4.29 .706 primary reason was for their own health – R1 (27%),
Compare with another rice followed by their family’s health – R2 (26%), nutritional
433 4.10 .797
value – R4 (24%), environmentally friendly production
Compare with another brand 433 4.14 .768
processes – R3 (16%), flavor – R6 (5%) and popularity at the
Fixed Price 433 4.06 .831 time – R5 (6.6%) as shown in Fig 4. Of the 230 respondents,
53 percent generally purchased organic rice from a
TABLE IV supermarket, followed by product exhibition (29.3%).
LOCATION-RELATED FACTORS AFFECTING DECISIONS TO PURCHASE RICE
Furthermore, some respondents preferred to directly purchase
Factors N Mean Std. Deviation
Easily Purchased 433 4.44 .639 rice from organic rice farmers. In addition, there were
Easy to find 433 4.07 .844 respondents who knew about organic rice and did not
Delivery 433 3.32 1.196 purchase organic rice due to rarity (45.7%), followed by lack
of popularity (34.7%) and expensive price (20.8%).
TABLE V
ADVERTISING-RELATED FACTORS AFFECTING DECISIONS TO PURCHASE RICE
TABLE VI
EFFECTS OF PERSONAL FACTORS ON PURCHASE DECISION
https://doi.org/10.15242/IJAAEE.C0117028 9
Int'l Journal of Advances in Agricultural & Environmental Engg. (IJAAEE) Vol. 4, Issue 1 (2017) ISSN 2349-1523 EISSN 2349-1531
TABLE VIII
DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP OF ORGANIC RICE AWARENESS
Awareness of Purchase of
Organic Rice? Organic Rice?
Variable
Yes No Yes No
(%) (%) (%) (%)
Gender
male 52.61 52.71 48.98 59.26
Age
When the influence of personal factors on awareness of 40-55 years 21.30 10.34 23.81 17.28
organic rice were considered using χ2 test as shown in 56-70 years 7.39 1.97 11.56 0.00
TABLE VII, it was found that the personal factors that
Education
produced significant differences were age, education,
occupation, income, and number of family members. Secondary Education 4.35 3.94 6.12 1.23
Income
TABLE VIII showed the percentage of demographic Below 15,000 Baht 20.43 33.99 18.37 23.46
characteristics of awareness about organic rice. In this study
15,000 - 25,000 Baht 36.52 46.80 29.93 49.38
men (52.61%) were more aware of organic rice than women
(47.39%). However, there was a slightly larger percentage of 25,001 - 40,000 Baht 30.00 12.32 34.01 22.22
women who purchased organic rice. This was similar to the 40,001 - 60,000 Baht 8.26 3.94 10.20 4.94
findings discussed in Roitner-Schobesberger et al. [5]. The 60,001 Baht or more 4.78 2.96 7.48 0.00
reason might be that women tended to be more health Number of family
conscious than men as supported by [16]. People aged members
between 30-39 years had the greatest awareness of organic 1 person 6.96 6.90 6.80 6.17
rice as well as being the top group of purchasing organic rice. 2 persons 18.70 10.34 18.37 19.75
The same results were found in Ueasangkomsate and
3-4 persons 47.39 46.80 46.94 48.15
Santiteerakul [17] which showed that ages between 31 to 40
years had more interests in organic food than other groups. 5 persons or more 26.96 35.96 27.89 25.93
In terms of education, the greatest percentage of respondents
who were aware of organic rice held bachelor degrees. V. CONCLUSIONS
Similar findings were also discussed by Ueasangkomsate and
Data analyses on rice purchase behavior found that the rice
Santiteerakul [17]. Respondents with monthly salary between
most popularly purchased was polished white jasmine rice.
25,001 - 40,000 baht had the highest willingness to buy
The majority of respondents purchased rice one a month at
organic rice. Finally, families with 3-4 members had the
five kilograms per time. The respondents preferred ordinary
greatest interest and greatest willingness to purchase organic
and organic rice sold in supermarkets due to convenience and
rice.
accessibility, which concurred with the place-related
marketing factors affecting consumer decisions [13]. The
consumers gave the highest priority to convenience. This was
in line with the findings discussed by Guerrero et al. [14] and
Buckley et al. [15] who found that convenience was an
important parameter in food purchasing decision.
https://doi.org/10.15242/IJAAEE.C0117028 10
Int'l Journal of Advances in Agricultural & Environmental Engg. (IJAAEE) Vol. 4, Issue 1 (2017) ISSN 2349-1523 EISSN 2349-1531
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Hence, there is a need to promote proper organic farming and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2016.04.037
promote acceptance of organic farming in line with
international standards. This can be done by various parties Lakkana Ruekkasaem is a Ph. D. Candidate, Department of Industrial
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University, 12120,
such as government, non-profit organizations, or other THAILAND. She is currently the lecturer at Faculty of Industrial Technology,
stakeholders such as knowledgeable consumers. This may Phranakhon Rajabhat University.
lead to increased farmers’ income, increased value of rice,
Montalee Sasananan is an Associate Professor, Department of Industrial
conservation and restoration of environment, and improved Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University, 12120,
quality of life for Thai farmers. In fact, the Thai traditional THAILAND. She is currently the Assistant Dean for International Affairs and
wisdoms can be very useful since it involves natural farming Public Relations. She is also a member of the Council of Engineers, Thailand.
that is essentially organic by nature.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Faculty of Engineering,
Thammasat University, Thailand.
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