Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
investigators huge amount of information maybe
through questionnaires, personal interviews, or
other methods. The only demerit is that personal
preferences of the consumers may not be
identified in this method or the effect of sale
promotional activities may not be measured
accurately.
counter are in use to get information on particular
aspects of interest.
7.1.5.6 Depth Interview Method
A special type of interviewing to get data is the
depth interview method. Generally, this type of
method is used to unearth the motives and desires
of the respondents. Thus, this technique is more
on psychological than mechanical one. The suc-
cess of this method depends on the skills of an
interviewer and the endurance of the respondents
to reply to the queries, as most of depth
interviews involve considerable time. The depth
interviews may be projective or non-projective in
nature depending upon the objective and the type
of questions.
7.1.5.4 Consumer Panels
A consumer panel method is a specialized type of
pantry audit method. In this data collection
method, the consumers or a set of consumers are
studied on a regular basis. The assumption or the
understanding of this method is that a selected
consumer will maintain a daily detail record of
his/her consumption, and the same could be made
available to researchers as, and when, necessary.
The consumer panel method of data collection
may be
7.1.5.7 Content Analysis Method
It has already been mentioned that during the
formulation of the subject matter of research
studies, related documents are essential in the
whole process. A researcher is to study and ana-
lyze the content of the documents (books,
journals, magazines, Internet resources, etc.) to
facilitate the whole research process. The content
analysis may be a qualitative as well as quantita-
tive one.
. In a transitory
consumer panel method, information on the
consumers' consumption details is taken before
and after basis. That is, the information is taken
from the selected consumer before introducing a
particular phenomenon (sales promotional scheme
like 20 % extra in biscuit packets of particular
brand, etc.) and again after the occurrence of a
particular phenomenon. Generally, consumers are
not aware about the promotional scheme so long
these are not introduced in the market. Thus, the
effect of such phenomenon would be measured
with such method of data collection. On the other
hand, a continuing consumer panel is generally set
up to study the consumer behaviors on particular
aspects over a period of time. Like the market
survey of consumers' good, in studies like televi-
sion/radio viewership/listeners, care must be taken
so that consumer panels selected for that purpose
must represent the whole consumer community.
transitory or continuing
7.1.5.8 PRA and RRA Method
This method is mostly used under two situations,
particularly in social sciences, when a researcher
does not have a complete idea about the problems
faced by the people and/or when information is
needed quickly. The purpose of this method is to
get an understanding and complexity of the prob-
lem rather than of getting absolutely accurate
data. In this method, people participate in sharing
their views, action-interaction takes place, and
information is recorded.
7.1.5.5 Mechanical Device Method
As the name suggests, this is a method of collecting
data through mechanical devices. Mechanical
devices like camera, psychogalvanometer, motion
picture camera, and audiometer are the principal
devices used for general purposes. In agriculture,
the instruments like leaf area meter and seed
7.2
Collection of Secondary Data
Secondary data are available only if required
to be collated or compiled. Generally, secondary
data are available from different sources like the
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