1. 0 Introduction: World without green is a nightmare. Trees are utmost important to maintain ecological balance of the earth. Unfortunately greedy nature of human being causes earth to lose its green color by cutting down trees. As a result green house effect takes place and put human lives in great danger. Climate change being a hot issue in recent years. Ice in the North Pole is melting and the sea level height is increasing. Several countries of the world have already experienced the effect of climate change. In Bangladesh the picture is much more violent.
Bangladesh is one of the main victims for this climate change. A country needs twenty five percent of its land occupied by forest to maintain its ecological balance. But here the percentage is much less. In Dhaka, capital city of Bangladesh the city dwellers hardly seen any green around them. Every inch piece of land is occupied by concrete structure. The solution lies on to make garden on roof top of house. But, people are very much busy with their daily life. To make a garden and to maintain it is quite difficult for the busy city dwellers.
If people can make vegetable garden along with flower garden, it will ensure supply of fresh vegetables for them. Vegetables and fruits that city people eat are mixed with chemical which are hazardous to their health. A roof top vegetable garden can be mind soothing site as well as source of fresh vegetables for the city dwellers. “Roof top vegetable garden” is a concept of product. It will construct at the roof top of the house. It consists of 10-12 different types of vegetables. This will ensure fresh supply of vegetables along the year. 1. 1 Objective:
The study objective is to identify market characteristics of the product “Roof top Vegetable Garden. ” Specific objective: ? Preference of the vegetables (summer season) which customers want to include in their product. ? Preference of the vegetables (winter season) which customers want to include in their product. ? Trace out demographic pattern (e. g. ; income level, profession, free time) of the customers. 1. 2 Methodology: Sources of data: Primary source of data is used for analysis of the study. The questionnaire based survey is conducted Formal questionnaire is prepared for surveying the customers.
Sample size: Simple random sampling method was used for selection of sample. 21 house owners were selected for questionnaire survey. 1. 3 Data Analysis Technique: Customers’ prefers one vegetable to another. To find out which vegetables are most preferable to customers’ a weighted average technique is used called Mean score of relative importance (MSRI). MSRI technique, which is a descriptive statistical technique, is administered for analyzing the collected data due to the similarity of the nature of collected data. The formula of MSRI is given below: Mean Score of Importance of a Factor=(W + (n-f) N/n
Where, |(W |= Total sum of cardinal weights assigned to different degrees of importance for the factor in question pointed out by| | |the respondents | |n |= Total size of the sample | |f |= Total number of respondents pointed out the factor in question (i. e. , the frequency of the factor) | |N |= Total number of factors contributing to satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) pointed out by any of the respondent |
Source: Huque (2000); Alam (1986) To use this formula cardinal weight were assigned to different degrees of relative importance pointed out by the respondent. In the present study, the cardinal weights assigned to different degrees of importance to calculated mean scores of relative importance were as follows: |Ordinal Degree |Cardinal Weight | |1st |1 | |2nd |2 | |3rd |3 | |4th |4 | – |- | |- |- | |- |- | |12th |12 | Frequency distribution: Frequency distribution is a mathematical distribution used to obtain a count of the number of responses associated with different values of one variable and to express these counts in percentage terms. Frequency distribution is used to know about the frequency of buying vegetables in a week and analyze place for buying vegetables.
Cross-tabulation: Cross-tabulation is a statistical technique that describes two or more variables simultaneously and results in tables that reflect the joint distribution of two or more variables that have a limited number of categories or distinct values. Cross-tabulation technique is used to analyze buying frequency-amount spent. It is also used for income-occupation analyze and occupation-free time analyze. 1. 4 Scope of the study: The study area was Dhaka metropolitan city. In the city area the house owners were the population. As this product needs to install in the roof top of the ouse. 2. 0 Analysis & Findings: 2. 1 Preference of Vegetables: 2. 1. 1 Summer Vegetables: In summer time vegetables’ variety are not so much like in winter. Limited number of vegetables is found in this season. Due to rain and other reasons in summer time the price of vegetables remains a little high. Table 1: Ranking of Summer Vegetables |Name |Weight |Rank | |Derosh |4. 0952 |1 | |Palong Shak |6. 8095 |2 | |Misti Kumra |6. 666667 |3 | |Pui Shak |7. 0476 |4 | |Chal Kumra |7. 09524 |5 | |Begun |7. 381 |6 | |Jingha |7. 5238 |7 | |Corolla |8. 429 |8 | The above table shows consumers’ preference of summer vegetables. The top eight vegetable names are listed in the table according to consumer liking. At the top of the list is Derosh, which is a very common item in the bazaar. So these vegetables can be included in the vegetable package in summer time. 2. 1. 2 Winter Vegetables: If summer is season of fruits, winter is the season of vegetables. Plenty of vegetables are found in this season. Though plenty of vegetables are produced in this season, price is still high.
Huge price difference is observed in different levels and this is due to weak market mechanism. However people are waiting for these vegetables for the whole year. Table 2: Ranking of Winter Vegetables |Name |Weight |Rank | |Sheem |3. 952 |1 | |Fulcopy |4. 047 |2 | |Badha copy |4. 238 |3 | |Laau |4. 6 |4 | |Tomato |6. 471 |5 | |Dhone pata |6. 571 |6 | |Shosha |7. 67 |7 | In the above table, vegetables are ordered according to the preference ranking of the customers’. In the list the famous names are there. It is better to include these vegetables in the winter vegetable package. 2. 2 Vegetables buying place: City dwellers are very much busy with their profession.
Again most of the day’s time is being lost in the road for traffic jam. People prefer to buy from nearby bazaar. Vegetables may mix with chemicals in those bazaars but nothing to do. Again if some natural calamities happen the businessmen take chances by raising the prices. People also buy from van but in van people may not get all the vegetables they need. [pic] Fig 1: Location of buying 11 respondents buy vegetables from bazaar, 7 respondents buy vegetables from van, 2 respondents bay vegetable from supermarket and 1 respondent buys vegetables from Kawran Bazaar.
It can be seen that a majority (11 out of 21 respondents) prefer to buy vegetables from bazaar. 2. 3 Weekly expenditure on vegetables: 8 Respondents buy vegetable after 2-3 days, 10 respondents buy vegetables after 4-5 days, and 3 respondents buy vegetable after 6-7 days. It can be seen that vegetables are a necessity item. Most people like to buy vegetables frequently (within 2-5 days) spending less each time i. e. they do not prefer to store the vegetables. 3 people buy vegetables within 6-7 days spending huge amount (over Tk. 01). Table 3: Amount spending and buying frequency | | |Buying |Total | | | |After 2-3 days |After 4-5 | | | | |days | | | |Business |Retired | | | |Tk. 6000-50000 |Tk. 50000 and | | | | |above | Most of the customers’ who are businessmen have monthly income above Tk. 50000. So businessmen whose monthly income above Tk. 50000 are the product users and can be conclude that they are the potential buyers. 3. 0 Recommendation: From analysis and findings it is to recommended that- • Follow the consumers’ preference in preparing vegetable package for summer and winter. Businessmen are the potential customer for this package. • Approach to individual’s who earns more than Tk. 35000 in a month. • People who have less free time (e:g; businessmen, job holder) in a day can be targeted. • An individual will be spent less by buying the product. 4. 0 Conclusion: A roof top vegetable garden can be the source for every day’s vegetables need. Not only has the monetary factor involved with this product. One can get fresh vegetables.
It will cheer up one’s mind in this busy city life. In Bangladesh, people are increasing and farming lands are decreasing. Roof top vegetable garden can be the solution for this problem. The environmental factor also involved there. City will be greener. It will also contribute a little to maintain ecological balance and prevents from the bad effect of climate change. So with this roof top vegetable garden things can turn around. [pic]
