Awareness and Behavioral Responses Towards the Emergence of Digital Marketplaces for Agricultural Produce

Date

5-2019

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Arlene C. Gutierrez

Committee Member

Agnes T. Banzon, Loida E. Mojica, Agnes T. Banzon, Normito R. Zapata

Abstract

Food security is one of the main concerns in developing countries like the Philippines. With its growing population, food producers are given the pressure of supplying sufficient amount of food to the whole nation. This is where agriculture takes place. The foundation of a developing country is its agricultural sector. However, in the case of the Philippines, the agricultural sector is one with the slowest growth among the three – industrial, service, and agricultural sectors, which mainly constitutes the GDP of a country. This can be attributed to the problems in the agricultural supply chain of the Philippines. Filipino farmers are often left with no choice but to sell their produce to middlemen at a much lower price compared to the price in which the middlemen sells the farmers’ produce to the consumers. Also, farmers in selected regions in the Philippines end-up throwing away their produce due to excessive production and natural causes which resulted to a large surplus of agricultural produce. Sufficient market information, specifically in terms of demand and current market prices, would help these farmers set a competitive price for their produce and would also help them plan their production properly so that surplus would be kept at a minimum, if not none. Now that the evolution of technology has led to various innovations and with people having more and more access to digital technologies, agriculture is now being incorporated with e-commerce. Various tech start-ups in the Philippines have used the technology of e-commerce in distributing agricultural produce to its consumers.

This study attempted to determine the perception and willingness to use of consumers and farmers towards digital marketplaces for agricultural produce. Specifically, the research intends to describe the socio-demographic profile of both the consumers and farmers, discuss the level of awareness of consumers and farmers towards digital marketplaces for agricultural produce, distinguish the factors that could affect the level of awareness and behavioral response of consumers and farmers towards digital marketplaces for agricultural produce, identify the issues and challenges faced by digital marketplaces for agricultural produce and recommend necessary actions to address the issues and challenges faced by digital marketplaces for agricultural produce.

The data collected for this research are mostly primary data since there are only a few studies done regarding this research topic. Data collection was done through survey questionnaires which were accomplished by the members of selected farmer organization in Laguna to serve as the producer perspective of the study. Another set of questionnaires were accomplished by working professionals in selected areas of NCR and Laguna via online survey which was spread through social networking sites. The working professionals serve as the consumer perspective of the study.

Results have shown that both the consumers and farmers were not aware of digital marketplaces for agricultural produce. The consumers were indifferent with the platform while the farmers responded positively towards it. The results also showed that given the nature of e-commerce transactions and the perishability and variability in quality of agricultural produce, assurance in quality is a major factor that could influence the behavioral response of the consumers. Presence of information regarding how the platforms works, how transactions go about, and what feedbacks did the platform get from the customers are lacking which explains why both the consumers and the farmers were not aware of the platforms. Also, most of the existing platforms only operate in NCR. The farmer-respondents were also receptive of new technologies like digital marketplaces which explains why most of them have a positive behavioral response towards it.

This study recommends that certain factors are to be considered in order to ensure the success of a digital marketplace that offer agricultural produce. Given that the main consideration of consumers in purchasing agricultural produce is the quality, the platform should provide the consumers with visual characteristics of the product in form of images displayed in the platform. Quality grading of the produce would also help in adding credibility to the platform and would give more assurance to the consumers in terms of quality. Partnership with logistics services, which are also capable of transporting perishable goods, is one of the key in order to provide lower shipping costs while ensuring that the product will be delivered at its superior quality. Digital platform operators could reach out to farmer organizations and conduct seminars about digital marketplaces to be able to introduce it to farmers and encourage them to use such technology in selling their produce.

Language

English

LC Subject

Food security--Economic aspects, Agriculture

Location

UPLB College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Call Number

LG 993 2019 M17 B56

Notes

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Document Type

Thesis

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