PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF E-RETAILING OF AGRI INPUTS BY FARMERS

In an agrarian economy like India, wherein nearly 70 per cent of population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood; farmers’ concerns need to be at the centre stage. Easy and timely availability of high quality agri inputs at reasonable price is one of the prominent concerns of the farmers, as several agri inputs are indispensable to high yield agriculture practices. Earlier, farmers used to purchase agri-inputs from an agro retail shop or cooperative societies. In the Hi-tech digital age, some agri-input companies have started electronic retailing of agri-inputs, wherein farmer can order from the website or by phone call and agri-inputs are delivered to their doorstep. Although e-retailing of agri inputs seem to be in infant stage with only few companies engaged in it, this trend is sure to pick up momentum in times to come. Considering this, this present empirical research paper, high-lights the benefits perceived by the farmers while doing e-Retailing of Agri inputs. The research was conducted in three randomly selected districts of Gujarat. 300 farmers were selected purposively by adopting multistage sampling technique. Required data were collected by using pre-coded interview schedule and analyzed considering the objectives of the study. The result of the study indicates that the benefits like shopping convenience, ease/comfort of shopping, product selection and hedonic motivation/enjoyment were perceived by the farmers from e-Retailing of agri inputs; and they serve as the major ‘pull factors’ for farmers to continue e-Retailing of agri inputs.