Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1 PhD student of Department of Agricultural Economics, Mashhad
2 Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
Abstract
Introduction
According to United Nations reports, the world population will increase from 2.7 billion people to 9.9 billion people during the years (2016-2050) with 38% growth. With population growth, amount of demand for food consumption (in order to eliminate malnutrition and demand caused by population growth) will increase by 150 to 170 percent by 2050. Today, one of the problems and threats facing the realization of food security in human societies is existence of an unusual amount of agricultural product waste.
Every year, about one third and approximately 1.3 billion tons of total food production used by humans with a monetary value of 936 billion dollars, it is lost or wasted, which means that 0.9 million hectares and 306 square kilometers of water required for the production of agricultural products are wasted every year. The presence of this amount of waste in Iran's agricultural products indicates a significant waste of resources in country, and management of the country's resources (especially water) according to Iran's climatic situation and forecasting and drawing the future; It is telling that (resources used in agricultural sector) will soon become an important challenge. Considering that in country, 93.5% of water resources are used in agriculture, other issues such as pollution of water reserves, transfer of agricultural water to other sectors and low efficiency of water consumption in agriculture, increasing demand for water, increasing periods drought, phenomenon of fine dust, human impact on natural resources, etc. affect the amount of agricultural production.
Subgroups of fruits and vegetables have the largest share in the consumption basket of households, but there are no specific statistics for recent years about share of consumption per capita of households (separated by products used) in Iran. It should be remembered that the amount of waste created by consumer’s ranges from 1 kg/household/week to 4.5 kg/person/week based on consumer's behavioral characteristics; it can be variable. Therefore, in this research, considering the importance of agricultural inputs (especially water) for the production of these agricultural products and the high percentage of share in consumption portfolio of households; Subgroups of fruits and vegetables were selected.
Materials and Methods
The research case study believes that in addition to consumers of Mashhad; there is heterogeneity among retail and wholesale shops as well as main market squares of city, and each can have a different percentage of waste from agricultural products. These differences can be variable based on the urban area and based on these differences; A model should be chosen that can take into account the heterogeneity of the studied society. Based on this, the multilevel Bayesian model was used as a more suitable tool, which is mentioned in following section on the modeling method of this model.
Results and Discussion
Based on the results in table (9), gender variable according to mean value of its parameter distribution (0.8285) is in the estimated confidence interval; It is one of the variables affecting reduction of waste of fruit and vegetable products in such a way that gender of being a woman and the management of family affairs by women (compared to men); it reduces waste.
For variable of education level of consumers, waste created by fruit and vegetable products is effective only in diploma to bachelor group (compared to education level group to diploma) and according to negative sign of average distribution of its parameter (-1.4599) it shows that this category they produce more waste than people.
The variable of household size has an effect on amount of waste of fruit and vegetable products (parameter distribution mean = 0.3151) and increasing dimension and size of the household has reduced waste. Also, the number of people working in the family (parameter distribution mean = 0.3733) has reduced the waste of fruit and vegetable products, and this can be because with increase in number of workers in families; level of income can change and products with better quality levels can be purchased. The variable of people's type of job has an effect on reducing the waste of fruit and vegetable products, and with improvement of quality of the job, amount of waste decreases.
The relative price parameter of agricultural products (parameter distribution mean = 0.1475) reduces waste formed on agricultural products by consumers. By increasing relative price of agricultural products (e.g. fruits and vegetables) to consumer by comparing the value of that product with other goods and other products; He realizes that the consumption of that product will create the least amount of waste. Parameter of distribution location of agricultural products (parameter distribution mean = 0.1744) reduces waste formed on agricultural products by consumers. Suitable places for product distribution can give better access and power of choice to consumer, and based on this, consumer can avoid bulk purchases or worry about running out of products in nearby stores; He avoids and the amount of waste formed by him decreases. Product parameter (goods or services offered to customer) for agricultural products (parameter distribution mean = -0.1902) causes an increase in the waste formed in agricultural products by consumers. In other words, with increase in the supply of products (fruits and vegetables), consumers become more willing to buy and consume (like consuming a specific product during the supply season), and this causes increase in amount of purchases to affect the amount of waste generated. Parameter of promoting agricultural products (parameter distribution mean = 0.0683) reduces the waste formed in agricultural products by consumers. With better introduction of product and advertisements related to the production process until its consumption; consumer understands the value of the product and tries to reduce its waste.
Conclusions
The final results of research showed that individual and mixed marketing factors can play an effective role in reducing waste. Based on this, it can be said that in addition to importance of each link of the food supply chain; in consumer level, it is possible to contribute to reducing waste of agricultural products by using mixed marketing tools (including price, product, promotion and appropriate location of product). Therefore, consumer behavior studies are considered to be one of low-cost solutions to reduce amount of agricultural product waste according to individual-social characteristics and effective role of marketing mix.
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