Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The purpose of this research project is to understand factors that influence value-added agriculture on both the consumer and producer side in order to enhance farm profitability among small farmers in North Carolina. Specifically, this project explores the willingness of farmers to engage in value-added agriculture and the willingness of consumers to pay for value-added products. Small and socially disadvantaged farmers in North Carolina, serve as the primary target audience. Consumers, policy makers, North Carolina county and university cooperative extension agents, educators and governmental agencies will also benefit from the findings of this project. During year 1 of the project, efforts included the research team developing and facilitating a consumer value-added focus group questionnaire in order to evaluate consumers' attitudes towards value-added products and a demographic survey of the participants. The research team analyzed the focus group data and developed a paper entitled "Consumer Preferences for Direct-to-Consumer Value-Added Agriculture in North Carolina: Preliminary Findings of Consumer Focus Groups," that was submitted and accepted to be presented at the 2020 Food Distribution Research Society Virtual Conference. Additionally, the research team developed a poster entitled, "Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Value-Added Agricultural Products and Response to How the Covid-19 Pandemic Affects Agricultural Purchases," that was submitted and accepted to be presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Conference in February, 2021. Changes/Problems:Although the research team was able to meet most of the timeline objectives that were initially established for the project, the team encountered significant roadblocks due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The research team had to pivot from planning to facilitate in person focus groups to online focus groups. In order to reach participants, researchers enlisted the assistance of cooperative extension. Due to the pandemic, cooperative extension offices were closed and as such, the agents could only be reached via e-mail, voicemail or cellphone. Response times from agents were very slow, which caused our timelines to be pushed out. Also, by conducting the consumer value-added focus groups via Zoom, participants had to be somewhat knowledgeable about Zoom and have an electronic device, thus decreasing our participation size. Additionally, when the project was initially developed, the Covid-19 pandemic was not a factor. Due to this unforeseen occurrence, the execution of various components of the project, such as upcoming workshops, may become difficult. The research team will adjust to restrictions and follow guidelines in order to facilitate the project objectives. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has created a plethora of training and professional development opportunities for the project members and students supported by the project. Opportunities for personal development included the research team becoming well versed in Qualtrics, which is a web based software company, through which researchers are able to develop and distribute questionnaires. The research team has learned how to develop questionnaires electronically and analyze the results via Qualtrics. Researchers will receive additional Qualtrics training which will assist them with the main consumer value-added questionnaire. Additionally, the research team had to move from in person focus groups to virtual focus groups, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, the team has become extremely knowledgeable concerning the inner workings of Zoom. Researchers have attended Zoom workshops and watched Zoom training videos in order to become proficient in utilizing this essential and necessary tool that has allowed the team to pivot from their original focus group plans. Undergraduate students associated with this project are in the process of learning about literature reviews, questionnaire development and focus groups, which are tools that will allow them to become effective researchers. The graduate student associated with the project attended QDA Miner online training in order to assist with the analysis of the primary data. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During year one of the project, the research team has developed a paper and a poster that will disseminate the preliminary results to communities of interest. The team developed a paper based on the results of the focus group entitled: "Consumer Preferences for Direct-to-Consumer Value-Added Agriculture in North Carolina: Preliminary Findings of Consumer Focus Groups," that was submitted and accepted to be presented at the 2020 Food Distribution Research Society Virtual Conference. Additionally, the team developed a poster entitled, "Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Value-Added Agricultural Products and Response to How the Covid-19 Pandemic Affects Agricultural Purchases," that was submitted and accepted to be presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Conference in February, 2021. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Specific plans the research team has for the next reporting period, include the development and dissemination of the main consumer questionnaire. Researchers will meet with the project's advisory board before developing the questionnaire and after it is disseminated, returned and analyzed, the project team will begin working on outreach value-added workshops. These workshops will inform small and socially disadvantaged farmers of research findings, and other useful information. Additionally, during year 2, the project team will develop and conduct focus group interviews with small farmers in North Carolina to evaluate their attitude towards value-added operations, which is the second goal of the project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During year one, the research team was able to begin working on objective 1 of the project, which is to evaluate consumers' attitudes towards value-added products. In order to do so, the team developed and conducted consumer value-added focus groups throughout 5 regions of North Carolina: Guilford County, Wake/Durham/Pitt Counties, New Hanover County, Wilkes County and Cabarrus County. The research team developed a demographic survey and a consumer value-added focus group questionnaire, which was submitted and approved by the University's Institutional Review Board. Cooperative Extension agents were contacted in 11 counties to assist with the research team's solicitation for consumer focus group participants. Initially, researchers were planning to conduct the focus groups in person, however, due to Covid-19, the team conducted the focus groups virtually via Zoom. After the completion of the consumer value-added focus group, participants completed a demographic survey electronically via Qualtrics. The research team has transcribed the focus group dialogue and is in the process of analyzing the demographic and focus group data. The data will be utilized to develop the main consumer questionnaire that will be used to identify factors or attributes that will influence consumers' willingness to pay for value-added agricultural products. Based on preliminary results, researchers observed that participants were very specific concerning their agricultural wants and needs, specifically how much they are willing to pay for various agricultural value-added goods and activities. These same results were used to develop a paper that was submitted and will be presented at the 2020 Food Distribution Research Society Virtual Conference and a poster that will be presented at the 2021 Southern Agricultural Economics Association Conference.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Obed Quaicoe, Kenrett Jefferson-Moore, John Paul Owens, Jarvetta Bynum and Mecca Straughter. 2020. Consumer Preferences for Direct-to-Consumer Value-Added Agriculture in North Carolina: Preliminary Findings of Consumer Focus Groups. Food Distribution Research Society Virtual Conference
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Obed Quaicoe, Kenrett Jefferson-Moore, John Paul Owens and Jarvetta Bynum. 2021. Consumers Willingness to Pay for Value-Added Agricultural Products and Response to How the Covid-19 Pandemic Affects Agricultural Purchases. Southern Agricultural Economics Association Conference, February, 2021
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