Farmers’ brand preference and loyalty towards tomato seeds in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh

Among all agricultural farm inputs like seed, soil, machinery, fertilizer, irrigation etc. A good quality seed is a considered as major important farm input as it directly contributes to a good crop production which further makes farmer to earn income by marketing the surplus to consumers. Different seed brands are realised by public and private companies in the market which is becoming a challenging for farmer to choose a good quality seed brand for cultivation purpose. As tomato is considered as one of most profitable crop, majority of the farmers choose it for commercial purpose. A study was made to know about the farmers' brand preference towards tomato seed and finding the reasons that making farmer to choose a specific brand. Study has conducted by choosing two blocks i.e., Mulakalacheruvu and Nimmanapalle of Chittoor district and information was collected from 120 sample farmers from cluster of villages through random sampling procedure. Top eight brands of tomato seed were taken for study and ranking was done through simple weighted average method and it was found that majority of the farmers prefer SAHOO (TO-3251) followed by PHS SWEAKAR (448). Because of its characteristics of high yield and resistance to pest and diseases and when specific brand gives good crop yields for farmers, then the studies analysed that there will be repetitive purchase of that brand and farmers will shift irrespective of considering the cost of seed.