The Requirements of Organic Pomegranate Marketing from Paveh Growers’ Perspective

One factor that has highlighted the role of agriculture in the economy is to make the marketing system of agricultural products more efficient. The main purpose of this study was to identify the requirements of marketing the organic pomegranate of Paveh, Kermanshah Province, Iran, from the perspective of farmers. In order to identify contributing factors, an exploratory factor analysis was used. The population of this study consisted of the pomegranate growers of Paveh (N=2000) and 320 people were selected using the Cochran formula and a proportional stratified sampling method. The main research instrument was a questionnaire that was completed by interview. Validity and reliability were con- firmed using the feedbacks of advisors through 0.78 Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that the requirements were classified in eight factors of motivational improvement such as informing, technical, policy, economic, marketing, infrastructure, management, and social– services and they could explain 87 percent of the organic pomegranate marketing variance.


INTRODUCTION
The agriculture sector plays an important role in the country's economy. About 15% of impure internal production is produced in the agriculture sector. It also provides 25% of employment, 99% of food needs, 20% of exports, and 90% of the raw materials needed to meet the country's industries. Today, in many developing countries, more production makes up for only one part of the agriculture duties and another important part is to market the products, because it is the marketing system that has the task of distributing the produced agricultural products (Mohammadi, 2011).
All over the world, over 26 million hectares of farmlands are under organic farming. What is considered as a need in new marketing strategies and innovations in the structure of organic marketing is to give new information to consumers, promote investment in the relationship between retailers and consumers, and improve the understanding of the usage of these products. Consumers have to know all the information and the benefits of organic production methods and their effects on the environment protection, biodiversity, quality, and food safety. This should be provided by new marketing strategies and activities (Colom, 2009).
With increase in production, especially supply over need and expanding the markets from the beginning of this century, marketing has been considered as an important issue in the economic management of countries and its importance is increasing day by day, so that some experts believe that such a category is more important than producing and it is a tool for responding to consumer preferences (Mohammadi, 2011). Barabari (2011) believes that marketing of agriculture products is important for the development of the other agriculture sectors as well as for related sectors such as industry, finance, economy, and services. Therefore, if agriculture products are not harvested, collected, transported, or maintained timely and properly or if grading and packing operations are not done timely and properly, and most importantly, if the supply of such products is not on the basis of statistical criteria and market data, the impacts of other activities in effective parts such as production and marketing development will be decreased.
Ardestani and Moazeni (2012) stated that an active and effective system in the marketing of agriculture products increases the speed and amount of production.
Gbolahan (2013) believes that different functions of marketing such as grading, standardization, storage, and market information to provide the daily necessities of farmers need to be improved.
Market is referred to a network of relationships between producers and consumers in which goods and services are traded (EhteshamMajd et al., 2013). Marketing refers to all activities of economic actors to plan, produce, distribute, sell products, and give services to final users based on their needs and organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which increases the agriculture ecosystem health including genetic diversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity (Kohansal and Rahimi, 2013). Organic production systems are based on specific and precise standards of production which aim to achieve optimal and sustainable agricultural ecosystems in terms of social, economic, and ecological fields (Olhan et al., 2005).
Koujalgi et al. (2013) reported that to improve the marketing of pomegranate in India new processing units, providing storage facilities and effective communication are required in order to maintain the benefits of pomegranate growers. Another point that should be considered is that pomegranate is a product with high potential marketing. This can be exploited to expand the production and manufacturing facilities in the state.
According to Christie (2007), in Albania, barriers to the entry of the pomegranate product into Europe markets have been divided into two categories: custom and non-custom obstacles. Callado (2000) examined the evolution of marketing the pomegranate and the future requirements of pomegranate business in Spain and stated that future trading of the pomegranate fruit should be based on distinguishing the elements of pomegranate product from other products, continuity of elements of supply to demand such as volume and product quality and marketing proceedings and strengthening the use of this product. In addition, active and dynamic coop-eration between the domestic needs and different parts of marketing chain (Manufacturing, exporting and distributing real trade) should be considered as future commercial requirements of pomegranate.
The results of the Kohansal and Rahimi (2013) study, entitled "Investigating the factors of marketing pomegranate in Fars", have expressed the pomegranate marketing requirements in Fars province as follows: Need for in-service training courses in order to learn the marketing and processing of pomegranate; analyze and identify factors contributing to the development of modern and industrial exports, development, and marketing facilities; removing physical barriers in order to increase the production and export of pomegranates; and increase the use of appropriate scheduling, providing credit and loans, establish the industrial and packaging companies by government, and possibility of rating in provincial results in increase of added value.
In a survey by Salem and Tabatabaei (2011) pomegranate marketing requirements are as follows: provide enough credit in the harvest for market factors, particularly for local buyers; promote and respect the grading, packing, and processing; increase the number and quality of educational courses; support for pomegranate exporters; and increase the quality and quantity of marketing services.
Farshid Karkoodi (personal communication, 2013), the provincial coordinator of IPM and FAO projects, said: Paveh is one of the organic pomegranate production centers in Kermanshah province and even in West of the Country. It also has the first rank of producing pomegranate in the province. This research had not been conducted in this city earlier and it appears to be necessary to do some researches in order to increase the value of this product. An inefficient marketing system shows that manufacturers have only a small share in retail prices. This issue has negative impacts on the farmers' income and capital formation in agriculture.
The main purpose of this study was to identify the requirements for organic pomegranate marketing in Paveh County from the farmers' point of view.
MATERIALS AND METHODS According to the purpose of study, the research method was a correlation. The research included all growers who produce Paveh organic pomegranate. According to statistic of agriculture organization, the growers were estimated 2,000 persons, and sample size using Cochran formula was considered 320 persons, and proportional stratified sampling method was used due to specific number of pomegranate in each county. The research delamination was 2013-2014. The questionnaire was used to collect data. First, the theoretical foundations of topic according to literature review were examined. Then considering the results of the study, a preliminary questionnaire was prepared and after ensuring its validity and reliability, the final questionnaire was designed. In order to check the validity of the research instrument, the questionnaire was examined by the scholars and after some necessary modifications and changes, its validity was confirmed. The 0.78 reliability through Cronbach's alpha was found. Finally, to analyze the collected data, SPSS software was used.

Personal characteristics of respondents
According to Table 1  According to Table 2, the familiarity of a majority of farmers with the concept of marketing is at the low level (45.9%).
According to Table 3, the knowledge of most of the farmers with organic farming is very low (49.1%).
The purpose of the application of the factor analysis is to identify the requirements of pome-granate marketing from the perspective of Paveh growers and determine the amount of variance by each variable in classified factors.
In order to classify the factors, the criterion of eigenvalue has been used and factors with specific amount greater than one have been considered. Extracted factors with eigenvalue, percentage of variance, and percentage of cumulative variance are shown in Table 4.
Based on the findings of Table 4, the motivational-informative factor with the eigenvalue of 15.66 explains 42.33% of the total variance by itself. In general, the above eight factors explain 87.02% of the total variance which indicates

Social-services
Motivate manufacturers to produce organic products Increase the participation of producers in marketing activities related to organic pomegranate Short-term training courses for organic pomegranate growers to increase awareness of marketing issues Inform the growers of the state policy in the field of organic pomegranate marketing Send the promoters to pomegranate orchards in order to resolve issues related to marketing Increased participation of producers in activities related to the marketing of organic pomegranate Inform the organic pomegranate growers of customer-friendly with good market verities Construction and development of agricultural products terminals in the provincial capitals and cities Inform the organic pomegranate growers of accessing to market information Improvement of organic pomegranate packing facilities Provide the infrastructure needed to launch e-commerce in marketing the organic pomegranate Education the pomegranate growers in marketing via text messaging and multimedia messaging Notifying the growers of time and amount of supply and demand Provide the infrastructure needed to launch e-commerce in marketing the organic pomegranate Access to information on laws and regulations relating to the marketing of organic pomegranate Considering the customers' interests and tastes Increase private sector participation in the various channels of marketing the organic pomegranate Management of the proper time schedule in producing organic pomegranate by growers Providing facilities and low-interest loans for the pomegranate growers to buy the needed equipment Increase private sector participation in the various channels of marketing the organic pomegranate Providing economic information of market including input price, products and etc to raise economic awareness of the pomegranate growers Create a database of information on requirements of organic pomegranate marketing (inputs, weather conditions, equipment, etc.) Create a favorable environment for investment in infrastructure in marketing the organic pomegranate Active and dynamic collaboration between different sectors of the pomegranate marketing chain Determine the price of organic pomegranate by government Stability in government policies regarding marketing, buying and selling the pome- infrastructural-technology, management, and social-services (Table 5).  (2011) confirmed the making policy factor. Given the facts and the results obtained in this study, the following recommendations will be substantial to improve organic pomegranate requirements.

DISCUSSION
Since motivational and informative factor has been recognized as the first rank contributing to the requirements of organic pomegranate marketing, it is proposed to increase the awareness of farmers on organic farming and marketing of the products by holding regular courses and sending a promoter to the areas. In addition, informing the farmers about the government policies in the field of marketing and giving them information about the customer-friendly varieties and about ways to access the market information will improve the organic pomegranate market. On the other hand, the construction and development of product terminals in the center of provinces can be helpful to develop organic pomegranate marketing.
By providing proper infrastructure for electronic commerce and marketing with cell phone, providing accurate information to farmers on the supply and demand of organic pomegranate, and also representing the customers' interest, the ability to produce and supply at the proper time and place will be increased.
It is recommended that by granting low-interest loans, as well as providing infrastructures and encouraging private sector to invest in this market, the development of this sector is facilitated. On the other hand, it can be useful to create a database on a different ground.
Economic factors such as pricing for products, stabilization in policies with regard to the marketing, buy and sell of pomegranates, and providing financial incentives for manufacturers by government can be a major factor in the development of marketing. In the meantime, paying attention to the interest of customers and their preferences should be considered as requirements.
The creation of stability in government policies and increased participation of private sectors in organic marketing are important factors in marketing requirements.
The creation of a favorable environment for investment in infrastructures, the creation of a fund to support producers of organic pomegranate, and guaranteed purchase of organic pomegranate with high quality can improve the planting of this product. These factors are termed as technical-infrastructure in marketing requirements.
Management of time schedules by the grower is an important managing factor in pomegranate marketing requirements.
By reducing the activities of dealers and cumbersome regulations of bank loans, we can expect a growth in this product. These factors, which are known as social-service, are considered as marketing requirements.