Satisfaction Level of Market Information SystemamongCoffee Producers in Nepal

Yogendra Kumar Karki. This paper is based on study among coffee producers which are associated with coffee production cooperatives in Lalitpur and Kavre districts of Nepal. Coffee is one of the major export crophowever, export volume is declining in past five years. In the same situation the consumption of coffee is increasing in Nepalese market. This study was performed with 180 coffee producers and sample was taken randomly. The result showed that majority of the producers have access of market information system as per need. Thestudy revealed that cooperative play an important role in sharing market information of coffee. The respondents were found satisfied with available price information and satisfaction index found to be 0.18 at scale of -1 to +1. Similarly, they are also satisfied with the source of market information (Satisfaction Index= 0.22). Coffee producers generally demanded retail price information. Lack of irrigation facilities and havoc of coffee rust wereidentified as major problems. Similarly,study found that there is need of irrigation facilities and also regular package of training for higher production of coffee.


Yogendra Kumar Karki.
This paper is based on study among coffee producers which are associated with coffee production cooperatives in Lalitpur and Kavre districts of Nepal. Coffee is one of the major export crophowever, export volume is declining in past five years. In the same situation the consumption of coffee is increasing in Nepalese market. This study was performed with 180 coffee producers and sample was taken randomly. The result showed that majority of the producers have access of market information system as per need. Thestudy revealed that cooperative play an important role in sharing market information of coffee. The respondents were found satisfied with available price information and satisfaction index found to be 0.18 at scale of -1 to +1. Similarly, they are also satisfied with the source of market information (Satisfaction Index= 0.22). Coffee producers generally demanded retail price information. Lack of irrigation facilities and havoc of coffee rust wereidentified as major problems. Similarly,study found that there is need of irrigation facilities and also regular package of training for higher production of coffee.

Introduction:-
Coffee is crop of great economic importance for millions of farmers in more than 50 countries. It is the second largest commodity in world trade after petroleum with an annual trading volume of US$ 40 billion. Brazil is the largest producer of coffee and America is the largest consumer (Dhakal, 2005). Coffee industry of the world has many distinct features and production is mainly concentrated in about 50 underdeveloped countries, while consumption is mostly by the developed countries like USA, Japan, and EU nations (Gautamet al., 2008).
In Nepal, coffee is one of the important cash generative crops in the mid hill regions (Gautam and Dhakal, 1994). Historically, it is believed that a saint named HiraGiri in Aanpchaur, Gulmi district introduced coffee for the first time in Nepal from Myanmar in 1944 (Chaudhary et. al., 2008). Currently, coffee is cultivated in around 40 districts and basically it has been producing commercially in about 20-22 hill districts especially of Mid, Western and Eastern Development Regions (MoAD, 2014). In Nepal, coffee is predominately grown by resource poor and small scale farmers under marginal upland condition (Shrestha. et al., 2008). Besides, using the unproductive fallow land, cultivation of coffee further conserves soil erosion and provide 20-25% extra income from companion intercropping under tree species (Chaudhari et. al., 2008). Coffee has an enormous potential to provide farmers a good employment and income generation opportunities especially of mid-hills region where there is a huge amount of land and suitable climatic condition for growing the coffee successfully. However, there is important role of market information system in marketing of coffee and to fetch higher prices among the coffee producers. In this regards this study was carried out to identify availability of market information system to the coffee producers and also to know the satisfaction level of market information among coffee producers.

Materials and methods:-
This study was done with 180 respondents that were coffee producer from Kavre and Lalitpur district of Nepal. All the samples were taken randomly from available six cooperatives that are associated with coffee production. Semistructure questionnaire was applied to generate data and data were entered into MS Excel. SPSS software was used for analysis of frequency and chi square test was applied to test the hypothesis. Similarly, satisfaction index was calculated based on -1 to +1 scale of preferences with five point scale of satisfaction indicating +1 as satisfaction, 0 neutral and -1 indicating dissatisfaction. Ranking of preferences also done based on percentage of priority by the respondents.Land measurement was done using local unit ropani (1 hectare= 19.965 ropani).
Result and discussion:-Respondent characteristics:-Out of 180 respondents, majority of respondents (89.44%) were Male. Only 10.55 per cent were female. The ratio of male to female were higher in Kavre district than in Lalitpur district of Nepal. The total respondents were 180, out of which 159 (88.33%) were Brahman/Chettri and only 11.67 percent were Janajati. Lalitpur district have relatively more number of indigenous people engage in coffee production than Kavre district. Majority of the households heads were found having agriculture as major occupation. The result showed that 87.78 per cent of respondents were engaged in agriculture while 7.28 per cent were found to be service as major occupation. More number of respondents from Kavre district were involve in agriculture than Lalitpur district. The education status was categorized intotwo category educated and uneducated. Nearly one fourth of the respondents were educated in both districts. Out of 180 respondents, 139 respondents were educated and 41 were uneducated ( Table 4). The number of respondent in Lalitpur district was more educated (72) than in Kavre district (67).

Marketing system at Producers' Level
Market price information plays an important role on the producers' decision about the production and marketing of coffee. Market and price are the prime factors of coffee production. If producer get information about market price in desired form, they perform their activities effectively and efficiently leading to proper allocation of resources through increased competition in the market. In this regards, the availability of the market price information is most crucial. The result showed that about almost all of the respondent producers' get information about the market price, which is present in Table 7. 100.00 The obtained information was used by producers' on their decision about production and marketing of coffee.But only the availability of the market price information is not important. From the point of its usefulness, it should be reliable, efficient and target group oriented. It should be effective on aiding to the producers' decision on different aspects related to production and marketing. The effectiveness of the market price information is reflected in producers' satisfaction level towards available information. Most of the producers' in the study area were satisfied towards the availability of the market price information. However, the satisfaction level was not associated with the producers' of Kavre and Lalitpur district as shown in Table8. This may be due to the reason that both categories of farmers may have similar kind of information requirement.  Total  90  90  180 100 Similarly, satisfaction index was calculated to see the satisfaction level of the coffee producers'. The satisfaction index was 0.18. It showed that producers' were satisfied towards the availability of market price information.

Use of marketing information at producers' level
Producers' need marketing information to take various production and marketing decision. The result showed that 61.24 per cent of the producers' were found getting marketing information as per need. Likewise, 35.96 per cent producers' were found getting marketing information occasionally. The frequency distributions of producers' getting marketing information was also found significantly associated with the time interval and category of farmers (Table  9). Figures in the parenthesis indicate the percentage *Significant (Chi-square= 8.0428) at 1% and 5% level of significance Coffee producers' were found using different type of source to receive marketing information. Among the different sources, the most important (46.47) was found cooperatives. The phone was found in the second position in terms of using different type of source to receive marketing information. Similarly, the result showed that friendswere found in third position followed by Radio, Newspaper and others (Table 10).

Marketing information required by producers':-
Marketing information in desired forms is made available to different target group on time to assist them to take appropriate decisions in time. Producers' need marketing information to take the decision on; what crop to plant, what variety to plant, when to plant, how much to plant, how to plant, where to sell, to whom to sell and so on. Different marketing information were first identified by informal group discussion with the coffee producers', and the most important seven marketing information were included in the study. Producers' were allowed to choose among the selected seven marketing information. The result showed that retail price of different market was the most important marketing information required by coffee producers'. The second important marketing information was quality of the product followed by whole sale price in different market, farm gate price, transacted volume anddemand and supply situation. The detailed about marketing information required by producers' is presented in Table 11.
Marketing Problems of Coffee:-Different problems were first identified by informal group discussions with the coffee producers', and the most important ten problems were included in the study. Producers' were allowed to choose among the selected ten problems during the field survey. The result showed that problem of transportation was the major problem in the marketing of coffee in the study area. Different problems are presented in the Table 12 by the districts. The second important problem was storage facilities and also inappropriate market price followed by unavailability of market management training and others.
Problems associated with coffee cultivation:-Majority of the respondents (45.56%) reported that lack of irrigation was major obstacle for coffee production. Coffee disease especially coffee leaf rust was another problems(30.14%). Other problems related with coffee production were drying of plants, lack of manure, lack of seed materials, lack of training respectively The study also suggested different approaches for higher coffee production. Among them management of irrigation facility for coffee plantation was major (34.80%) followed by training on coffee production, disease management and input supply.

Conclusion:-
Majority of the coffee producersweresmall holders and more than eighty per cent of the producers have access of market information system for coffee marketing. Almost all producers are associated with cooperative. Thus cooperative was found to be major source to disseminate price information likewise some producers was found to relay on friends for price information. The respondents were found satisfied with available price information and satisfaction index found to be 0.18 scale of -1 to +1. The study also showed that lack of irrigation facilities was major problem for coffee production followed by coffee disease and drying of plant.