Conjoint analysis of farmers’ preferences towards Pandal Vegetable Growers’ Association in Tamil Nadu

Farmers associations are the aggregations of producers to share the scale of economies and provide service in terms of knowledge, agro-advisory, supply of input, credit, procurement, processing, marketing and distribution etc. At present there are no studies relating to the Pandal Vegetables Growers'Association in Tamil Nadu. There is need of information regarding farmers’ preferences, perceptions about the association, problems faced by the farmers, services expected by the farmers for providing new services in future and further expansion of association. Conjoint analysis was used to analyze the farmers’ preferences towards services of the association. With respect to type of production methods the farmers preferred the Pandal method of production followed by drip irrigation cum fertigation method. Most of the farmers did not prefer the mulching method in production. Conjoint analysis estimation results for the farm inputs attribute indicated that farmers preferred the farm input information from the association.