Personal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics of strawberry growers

Abstract

The research conducted in Satara district of Maharashtra in the year 2023-24 aimed to investigate the marketing behaviour of strawberry growers in the region. The study followed an ex-post facto research design and collected data from 140 respondents from 14 villages in two tehsils, Mahabaleshwar and Jaoli, which were purposively selected based on the basis of maximum area under strawberry cultivation. The data were collected through personal interviews and analyzed using suitable statistical tools. The results revealed majority of the respondents were in middle age group, with a medium family size, small land holding, medium size of area under strawberry cultivation, medium experience in strawberry cultivation, low annual income, medium income from strawberry, medium level of source of information, medium risk orientation, and medium innovativeness. The maximum of strawberry growers exhibited a medium level of innovativeness. Since most growers have a good education, the government should thus take the initiative to raise the level of innovativeness by disseminating literature on success stories and holding demonstrations to encourage producers to adopt new technologies.