Market orientation of up-country and low-country vegetable farmers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Vegetable farming is one of the most important sub-sectors in Sri Lankan economy. Based on the agro-ecological adaptability, vegetables grown in Sri Lanka are broadly divided as up-country vegetables and low-country vegetables. The issues in the agricultural marketing system could be influenced by vegetable farmers’ level of market orientation. Consequently, the study aimed to identify the level of market orientation of up-country and low-country vegetable farmers and to ascertain whether there is a difference in market orientation between these two farmer groups. The level of farmers’ market orientation was determined using ‘MKTOR’ scale proposed by Naver and Slater (1990) which includes customer orientation (concern on customer preferences, well-being etc.), competitor orientation (concerns on neighbor-farmers’ activities) and inter-functional co-ordination (relationships with other stakeholders) as behavioral components. In order to include a monetary sense to the scale, additionally, farmer’s profit orientation (concern on prices and margins) was also incorporated. Using cluster sampling technique, sub-samples were selected for the study and individual respondents were selected using simple random sampling. Accordingly, 355 up-country vegetable farmers and 645 low country vegetable farmers were selected from different locations in the Country. Primary data were collected through a field survey by administering a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and outliers were removed to reduce the variability in data. Consequently, three categories were generated within each sample as vegetable farmers with low market orientation, moderate market orientation and high market orientation, after adding and deducting standard deviations from the mean values. The results indicated that in both up country and low-country contexts, majority of the farmers (61.4% and 63.6% respectively) are moderately market oriented. The second highest majority (26.8%) in up-country vegetable farming shows higher market orientation, whereas in low-country vegetable farming, the second highest majority (23.8%) were less market orientated. Nevertheless, a significant mean difference could not be identified between two samples. Thus, it is concluded that up-country vegetable farmers tend to be relatively more market-oriented, yet, they cannot make a significant difference in the agriculture marketing system in Sri Lanka. Hence, the strategies to enhance market orientation should target all vegetable farmers in the country.