An online survey was used to collect data on specialty crop farms in 2010 in Louisiana. The objectives included evaluation of familiarity with the Louisiana Food MarketMaker website and the All about Blueberries website, about marketing channels used, and the adoption of electronic and Internet based technologies to assist with marketing of differentiated products.
Variables included use and effectiveness of marketing channels, level of use and quality of internet service, use of Internet-based functions and applications, barriers to internet use, frequency of use and usefulness of social media and smart phones, effectiveness of and familiarity with MarketMaker and All about Blueberries websites and specific application. Generally, despite small sample size, farmer characteristics from the Louisiana survey were reasonably consistent with results from the Census of Agriculture 2007.
Descriptive analysis and Logit model were used for data analysis. Results from this study can provide useful information about these new (to many farmers) technologies for marketing. Familiarity with MarketMaker was strongly associated with share of total sales from vegetable crops, farmer occupation, Internet speed as a barrier, Internet use in farming and finding markets through MarketMaker in 5 percent significant level. Social media use in farming was statistically significant in explaining familiarity with All about Blueberries website. Internet use and specialty crop acreage also were significant. In addition, large impacts on the odds ratios were found. When speed of internet service was rated as not a barrier, familiarity with MarketMaker was higher. Significant impact of coefficients on odds ratios were found for both websites.
Future questionnaires could segment users based on level of activity such as initial and intermediate involvement, improved ability to use the site for partners and for research, to manage risk, and for feedback for further development of the program. Length of the survey questionnaire was a limitation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-05102012-161822 |
| Date | 16 May 2012 |
| Creators | Kanaththa Kankanamge, Sandamali |
| Contributors | Hinson, Roger A, Harrison, Jr, Robert W, Westra, John |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-05102012-161822/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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