Essay: The association between personal and environmental factors for milk consumption

I. INTODUCTION
In developing countries a growing change in the food market has been observed. This change is basically due to the increase in consumer standards of living. Hence , it is necessary to understands the requirements of different segments of the population in order to identify the different sets of consumer and their consumption preferences.( Babolian and Ab Karim, 2010).
In Haryana, the rural area comprises over 65.21% of total population who plays an important role in economic development. The best result in rural areas due to this economic development have led to more affluent consumer who demand high quality food products (Phuong and Marcus, 2013). People who are more educated in rural areas are now more conscious about the health and wellness related to food choices and diet. Rather it would not be wrong to state that for the food industry a significant transformation has taken place to meet the increasing need and preferences of the consumer. (Hoang ,2009)
It is important to find the association between personal and environmental factors for milk consumption. For the consumer milk and dairy products are the best biologically utilized sources of calcium which is very important for our body. (Charles, 1992)
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Recent consumer research suggests that food consumption is becoming increasingly diverse and consumers are growing more concerned about the quality, safety and nutritional content of their food (Phuong et al., 2013; Thang and Popkin, 2004). Regarding factors influencing consumption of dairy products, socio-economic and demographic characteristics (e.g. gender, age, income, education, presence of young children in the household, ethnicity) and level of knowledge influence Vietnamese households’ expenditure for dairy products (Phuong et al., 2013a).
Accordingly, the potential of increasing household’s income, higher level of education and greater presence of young children in the household have positive effects on the household’s consumption of dairy products. The Vietnamese households’ expenditure for dairy products is also significantly different across two household groups: rural household and urban household.
Aside from the socio-economic and demographic factors discussed above, consumers’ health consciousness has been found to significantly affect the household’s consumption of dairy products. Bonaventure and Wendy (2012), and McGill et al. (2008) found that consumers who perceive dairy products as a good source of nutrients have higher consumption level of dairy products than other consumers.
III. OBJECTIVE
The present study is an attempt to meet the following objectives:
1. To study the present consumer behavior of today’s consumer for consuming the milk and its product in Rural areas Haryana.
2. To study the consumer motives for their choices of milk and its product and to explore the changes in consumer behavior in the rural areas of Haryana.
a) Research Methodology
For this data has been collected through primary survey and for that structured questionnaire has been designed to get the responses of consumers. Likert’s five point scale was used to get the exact responses of consumers which varies from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). A sample of 500 consumers was studied to get the answer of the question. The below formula was used to get the exact sample size
n = Z2(pq)N ÷ e2(N-1)+ Z2(pq)
The sample size taken for study is more than the required according to the formula.
b) Sampling unit:
The study aimed at studying the consumer behavior & perception regarding the food products in rural and urban Haryana. Two zones were taken from Haryana according to their administrative block. Thereafter, two districts were chosen in which one was from the high density areas and other from low density area from each zone.
Zone I: Ambala and Kaithal
Zone II: Panipat and jhajjar
Again from these districts two villages were selected randomly for the conduct of the study.
Ambala : Aiyema and Kaleron
Kaithal: Dumara and Nawalgarh
Panipat : Babarpur and Pehladpur Khalita
Jhajjar : Rampur and Dawla
c) Reliability and validity of questionnaire:
A pilot study has been conducted to test the reliability and validity of questionnaire. For reliability croanbach α and for adequacy KMO test were applied. The questionnaire was reliable because α was more than 0.775 which means that test was reliable.
d) Data sources:
Primary as well as secondary source of data collection were applied for the present study. Primary data was taken from survey and secondary was taken from books and other published and unpublished journals.
e) Tools & Techniques:
Various techniques were used such as anova, KMO and Bartlets test and factor analysis to find the consumption scenarios of milk for today’s consumer.
IV. ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
The analytical framework for the said research has been drafted and prepared after examining the factors that influence the consumption of milk which was based on the literature review. (Fig. 1). Among all the factors the two main determinates which influenced the consumption of milk and its product were personal factor like household income , presence, sources of income, education, gender etc. while the second main determinate regarding the same were the milk market, price , purchasing convenience of the product.
MILK
CONSUMPTION
V. TEST RESULT
For the two zones KMO and Bartletts test was calculated. It states that if the value of Bartletts is p
To test the sampling adequacy, Kaiser Mayer Olkin MSA was calculated which was found to be 0.751. It is an indicated that the sample is good enough for sampling. Since the KMO sampling adequacy of this research data is higher at 0.760 and the significance of Bartletts Test of sphercity is appropriate is the result provide adequate evidence to support the appropriate use of Exploratory factor Analysis on the consumer motivation scale items.
For generating and reviewing the standards of the data, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed for extracting the data which determines the extracted data , underlying all the factors and the relationship between the number of variables. In order to extract the factors from the data, components that have an eigen value of 1 or more have to be identified from the total variance explained extracted using Principal component analysis. (Pallant, 2007)
It is the output of Exploratory factor Analysis process that lists the loading of the each of the scale items. This component matrix is subsequently rotated using varimax rotation to assist interpretation of its results. (Malhotra, 2007)
After reviewing both the zones for the consumption of milk and its product with different consuming motives using the Principal Component Analysis extraction method, 2 components were extracted from Zone I. Consumer from Zone I basically believe using branded packed milk due to non risk of synthetic milk and also uses packed milk due to its easy availability. People are now becoming more and more conscious regarding their dietary pattern.
Zone II also extracted 2 components before buying or purchasing motives of the consumer for milk and its product. One of of the important factor for the consumer of zone II they prefer to use loose milk due to taste. Also the II factor that was extracted from the research was the preference to use loose milk due to freshness.
To test the sample selection bias, the model of milk consumption expenditure was first estimated using the Heckman two-stage procedure. All the variables assumed to affect the milk consumption expenditure of rural households were included in the model and most of them were found to be significant in the model. Results from the non-nested test indicated that the model can be re-estimated using OLS regression. Linear regression model was estimated in the forms of logarithmic function. Independent variables used in the linear regression model include characteristics of rural households (i.e., income level, number of children and elders in the rural households, main income source), personal characteristics of the rural household head (i.e., age, educational level, gender, perception of milk price and quality/safety) and characteristics of milk market (i.e., convenience to buy milk).
As shown in Table 4, the estimated results revealed that the 63.5% changes in mean amount of money of the rural households can be explained by the independent variables in the model. The statistic F is 106.81 and the probability value showed total significance of fitted regression at 1% level. The considered model is therefore reliable for analysis of the next results.
VI. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
The paper identified the personal and environmental factors which were considered influence on milk purchasing decisions of rural households such as whether to buy or not to buy milk and the budget for purchasing. They are household income, main income source of the household, presence of children and elders in rural household, age, gender and educational level of the rural household head, head’s perception on milk price and origin, and convenience of the place for buying milk. The impacts of these factors on milk consumption of rural households in Haryana were examined by using a two-step econometric technique.
Variables Co-efficient t values Significant value
Income 0.26013 5.28 0.00
Children 0.10399 4.89 0.00
Age -0.24069 -2.46 0.014
Education 0.19393 2.24 0.026
Gender -0.02242 -1.01 0.311
Household characteristic -0.3131 1.46 0.146
Price -0.6703 -3.26 0.001
R squared 0.6350
F test 106.81
No of household 500
Source: Author’s calculations on the results of the t test.
Component Matrixa,b
Component
1 2
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO FRESHNESS .942 .139
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO TASTE .941 .159
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO ADULTERATION .972 .123
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO UNSKIMMED .876 .294
I PREFER TO USE BRANDED PACKED MILK DUE TO NON RISK OF SYNTHETIC MILK -.475 .833
I PREFER TO USE PACKED MILK DUE TO EASILY AVAILABLE -.425 .859
I PREFER TO USE DRY MILK DUE TO ITS EASY STORAGE .128 .809
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
a. 2 components extracted.
Component Matrixa,b
Component
1 2
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO FRESHNESS .931 .270
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO TASTE .920 .308
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO ADULTERATION .950 .280
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO UNSKIMMED .886 .386
I PREFER TO USE BRANDED PACKED MILK DUE TO NON RISK OF SYNTHETIC MILK -.656 .682
I PREFER TO USE PACKED MILK DUE TO EASILY AVAILABLE -.636 .715
I PREFER TO USE DRY MILK DUE TO ITS EASY STORAGE -.389 .619
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
a. 2 components extracted.
b. Only cases for which ZONE = ZONE 2 are used in the analysis phase.
Source: author’s calculations on the results of the factor analysis
Component Matrixa,b
Component
1 2
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO FRESHNESS .848 -.065
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO TASTE .853 -.466
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO ADULTERATION .834 -.490
I PREFER TO USE LOOSE MILK DUE TO UNSKIMMED .776 -.151
I PREFER TO USE BRANDED PACKED MILK DUE TO NON RISK OF SYNTHETIC MILK .454 .865
I PREFER TO USE PACKED MILK DUE TO EASILY AVAILABLE .484 .839
I PREFER TO USE DRY MILK DUE TO ITS EASY STORAGE .744 .242
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
a. 2 components extracted.
b. Only cases for which RESIDENCE TYPE = Rural are used in the analysis phase.
Source: author’s calculations on the results of the factor analysis
REFERENCES:
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