Small-Scale Farmer Preferences: Exploring the Gap Towards Product Attributes of Local and Imported Fertilizers

Marketing program becomes a crucial matter for fertilizer industries to boost selling in a particular marketplace. Local fertilizer industries actors are tried to outperform the competitor from other countries. The research objective is to explore horticulture small-scale farmer preference for product attributes of local and imported fertilizer. The research was conducted in Java, Indonesia as a representative region of horticultural farmers. This study used a survey method to gather data from 513 small-scale farmers horticultural farmers which spread over four provinces in Java Island. The data were analyzed with MANOVA analysis. The result shows that farmers have a similar preference for local and imported fertilizers concerning price, promotion, and nutrient content. Farmers prefer price between IDR 16,000 to IDR 20,000 per kg, promotion through farm demonstration plot, and product content additional micro-nutrients and vitamins. On the other hand, there is a distinct preference for the design of fertilizer packaging. Farmers prefer imported fertilizer with an additional image, but not on local fertilizers. This finding serves as a reference to fertilizer producers in improving their marketing strategy. Local fertilizers producers should undertake a strategy adjusted to farmer preferences to win the competition in local market. This research only represents the behavior on the small-scale farmers, the result might be different if it apply in a large-scale farmer because this type of farmer has different characteristic which will influence to their preference of fertilizer