The document summarizes a research project on the vegetable nursery business in Gujarat and Maharashtra, India. The research was conducted to understand the current market scenario and identify business opportunities for Monsanto in the nursery segment. Key findings include that nursery culture is dominant in specific areas of the two states, and farmer preferences are the main influencer in the business. The research recommends strengthening relationships with nursery growers and using intensive field demonstrations as farmers are the biggest influencers for nursery growers. It also proposes a new promotional program of farmer awards to boost brand loyalty.

1. Submitted to-Dr. S. John
Manoraj
Bidhu Bhushan Binit (11PGDM08)
Indian Institute of Plantation
Management
Bangalore.

2. Contents :
 1. Background of the study
 2.About Company
 3. Statement of the problem
 4.Objective of the research project
 5. Research Design
 6.Data Analysis and Interpretation
 7.Findings
 8. Recommendations

3. 1.Background of the study
 Huge potential of Indian vegetable seed market.
 Hyper competition amongst industry players.
 Direct linkage with the vegetable seed industry.
 Dearth of literature and has not been focused by
companies so far.

4. 2.Monsanto
 Total turnover is around US11.8 billion.
 It is one of the biggest agri-business companies in
the world and as well as in India.
 It has a separate R&D department devoted to
biotechnology research work which brought the bt
cotton in India for the first time.
 Seminis is the vegetable seed division of Monsanto.
 Round- up,Sitara, Indu are famous brands amongst
others.

5. 3.Statement of the problem
Is the vegetable nursery business calling to be
considered as a separate strategic segment in the
next two years in Gujarat and Maharashtra for a
vegetable hybrid seed manufacturing company ?

6. 4.Objective
To understand current status and market scenario of Vegetable
Nursery Business in Gujarat & Maharashtra.
Price spread analysis of vegetable seed used in Nursery.
Growth potential of Vegetable Nursery business in these two
states
&
To identify business opportunity for Monsanto and
recommendations for this.

7. 5.1 Research Design
• Primary Research
Method • Survey [Questionnaire(structured)]
• Descriptive
Design • Cross-sectional
• Gujarat & Maharashtra
Area

8. 5.2 Research Design
• Gujarat-[ Vadodara,Junagadh,Rajkot,Mehsana]
• Maharashtra- [Pune,Nasik]
Sampling Frame
• Probabilistic Sampling(Multistage/Combination Sampling)
Sampling
Technique
• Sampling Elements: Nursery grower, Farmer & Distributor/Dealer
• Sample Size- 180 [nursery grower -35;Farmer -130;Distributor-15
Sampling
element &
Sample Size

9. Data Analysis & Interpretation

10. 6.1Acreages of land under Veg. Nursery
Gujarat (240 acres)
300
vadodara
250 Rajkot
200 7%
junagadh
150 13% mehsana
100 240 35%
anand
160 Area(in rest
50 acre)
0
40%
2%
3%
Maharashtra
*calculated on the information collected from nursery
growers
(160acres)
Pune
Illation: 10%
Nasik
Vadodara ,Mehsana(75%) in Gujarat rest
40% 50%
and Pune,Nasik(90%) in Maharashtra
are major areas of nursery business.

11. 6.2 Stakeholders and flow of vegetable
seed in nursery business
sapling
Distributor/ Nursery Farmer
Manufacturer grower
Dealer
seed
Farmer
Sapling

12. 6.3 Factors affecting buying behavior of nursery
grower
100% 95%
80%
60%
40%
20%
1% 1% 3%
0%
farmers price seed count availability
Preference
Illation:
Effect of price is almost negligible. Segments and
brands demanded by farmers matters mostly.

13. 6.4 Influencer for farmers in purchase decision of sapling
brand
dealer 4% <3 ≥3 acre
self decision 20% 5%
field
fellow farmers 49% 40% demo
84%
field demo 25%
self
nursery… 2% 55% awarene
16% ss
land holding Influencer
Illation:
*Big farmer( owns ≥3 acre for a single
veg.crop) *Field demo is a proven tool to
influence and farmers heavily rely on past
experienced big farmers.

14. 6.5 Motivating factors for farmers to go for
nursery
labor
scarcity climate
8%
ease
25% 68%
germinati
on 32%
more problem
revenue 67%
0% factor for germination
problem
Illation:
*Farmers lack technical knowledge to grow sapling
and hence germination problem arises. They don‟t
want to take risk and choose nursery bought
sapling.

15. 6.6 Cost benefit Analysis of three veg.
saplings
*amount in lac
/acre
Veg Stat Cost Benefit Benefi
Fertilize Tray
e See t/cost
labor r& & co Total cost
d ratio
pest. pt.
Green Mah 4.855 14.56 1.59
0.15 0.1 4.03 9.134
chilli a
Guj 1.4 0.25 0.1 N/A 1.75 3.5 2
Tomato Guj 3.6 0.08 N/A 3.93 11.2 2.85
0.25
Mah 4.39 0.15 0.07 4.03 8.64 16.64 1.92
a
Cabbag Guj. 0.49 0.25 0.1 N/A 0.84 1.12 1.34
e
0.15 0.1 4.03 7.19
Mah 2.91 10.4 1.45
a

16. 6.7 Price Spread Analysis(example of Green Chilli
seed)
Sells at Sells at
Sells Rs280;
at Rs840;200
8% % increase
Rs259 increase
Manufacturer Distributor/Dealer Nursery Grower
• Research& • Inventory • Labor
pre base • Staff • Fertilizer&
production • others Pesticide
• certification • Tray& coco
• Base peat
production • others
• Marketing
• others
*example of 10gm packet of green
chilli(Sitara). Farmer
*farmer buys at 70paise/sapling out
of that seed used by nursery grower.

17. 6.8 Next two years projection
Area of land under bought sapling Expansion of nursery
cultivation by farmer in next 2yrs business(next 2 yrs)
100%
80%
2% as farmer
60%
demand
40%89%
98% sure
20% expansion
0% 4% 7%
same more less
Illation:
*Farmer who plans for less, will switch over to
other crop than vegetable.
*Veg. nursery is not likely to grow significantly. It
will be in same position in next 2 yrs.

18. 6.9 Hypothesis Testing
 Formal statement & formulation
 Null Hypothesis (Hₒ In the next two years, more than
):
25% of farmers growing sapling themselves, will switch
over to nursery grown sapling.
 Alternate Hypothesis (Hₒ In the next two years, not
):
more than 25% of farmers growing sapling
themselves, will switch over to nursery grown sapling.
Hₒ: µ > 0.25
Hₒ: µ ≤ 0.25
 Significance level
α = 0.05

19.  Sample size
Sample size ( n): 84
Number of respondents who want to switch over in the next two years: Illation
14
 Calculation The test statistic(z)
Sample proportion(p): is less than the
critical value of (-
P = 14/84 i.e. 0.16 1.645).So, the null
hypothesis is
Standard Variation(σ):
rejected.
If not more than
σ = {√µ(1-µ)}÷√n 25% of farmers
σ = {√0.25(1-0.25)÷√84 switching over to
σ = 0.045 nursery grown
business, gives the
Test statistics(z): illation of not
significant
z =(p - µ)÷σ expansion of
z =(0.16 – 0.25)÷0.045 nursery business in
z = -2 the next two years.

20. Findings

21. Findings
 Vegetable nursery business in Gujarat & Maharashtra:
 Nursery culture is prevalent in restricted areas. Vadodara and Mehsana in
Gujarat and Pune and Nasik in Maharashtra are the regions where
vegetable nursery is dominant.
 Nursery businessmen have almost negligible power in selection and offer of
segments, varieties and brands of vegetable seeds.
 Most of the transactions between farmers and nursery businessmen take
place in cash.
 Transaction between nursery businessmen and distributors happens on
credit.
 Role of distributors in the nursery business:
Distributor‟s role is very much limited in this nursery business. . They have
become almost silent agents.

22. Findings
 Practices in vegetable nursery business:
 In Maharashtra, nursery businessmen are progressive especially in
Nasik district. Their promotion mix includes local newspaper
advertisement, organizing stalls in „Kisan Melas‟, and distributing
leaflets. In Gujarat, most of the nurseries distribute leaflets.
 Word of the mouth plays major role in marketing for nurseries.
 In Vijapur talluka of Mehasana district of Gujarat, most of the nursery
businessmen are in the practice of pre-booking for saplings. They
run their campaign during season in which they go to the door steps
of the farmers and book the orders, take advance cash and advertise
their nurseries at the same time.

23. Findings
 Power of farmer
 Farmer can be said as the King in this vegetable nursery business.
 Farmer has the pure power of preference in selection of
variety, segment, and brand of the seed used in sapling.
 Farmer buys sapling to avoid germination problem and it also gives
ease.
 However germination problem can be overcome because it is due to
lack of technical disadvantage.
 Farmer demand is the sole reason of existence of vegetable nursery
business.
 Farmers ask their fellow experienced farmers for suggestion and rely
on them. Another factor is field demos which impacts substantially on
farmers in deciding the seed varieties and brand.

24. Recommendations

25. Recommendation
 Is this vegetable nursery business calling to be
considered as a separate segment ?
NO
Farmer
can
overcome
Stagnant germinatio
business n prob;
biggest
threat for
nursery
business.
>No need to make big investment separately.
>Existing Sales team can easily handle.

26. Recommendations
 Relationship with Nursery grower:
Make them feel as an important channel partner who are
invaluable for the company.
 regular visits to nurseries is required. Current situation
shows much less visits than required especially in
Nasik, Maharashtra.
 one officer from TD department assigned to nursery
only, employed to each major nursery areas-
(Vadodara, Mehsana,Pune,Nasik) is highly
recommended.

27. Recommendations
 Promotion
 Intensive field demonstrations to farmers are required
as farmer preference is the biggest influencer for nursery
grower.
 Distributing free samples to farmers has become old
technique; nevertheless still it is one of the fruitful ways of
promotion. But there is need of add on tools which could
turn farmers attached to the brand emotionally.

28. Suggested model- a new tool of Promotion

Award title- “SITARA”
Select 5 farmers from each
Reward: major nursery areas who
* Free soil are regular user of
testing company‟s veg.brands and
*expert experienced highest yield in
suggestions their area.
on time
*farm visits
by experts at
request
*need of new promotional activities.
*awards will make them emotionally
attached to brands.
*will be agents of “word of mouth”.

29. Recommendation
 Further Research
 This research study is not an end. There is acute lack of
research on vegetable nursery business and uses of
marketing concepts in the same. Branding is one of
them for which I recommend to carry out a separate
research study.

30. Vote of thanks
 My thanks with utmost respect to Dr. S. John Manoraj, Assistant
Professor (Marketing) for his encouragement as a teacher and for
fruitful discussions, critical review and direction as an academic
project guide.
 I am especially thankful to Mr. K.
Venkateswaran, lecturer((International Business & Computer
Applications) for his untiring support and helping me to understand
questionnaire design.
 I am thankful to Mr. Vinay Sharma,Technology Development
Manager,Monsanto India ltd for guiding me through out the project
period.
Thank You