Understanding contract poultry farmers’ experiences

What is shaping meat & poultry

Meat, poultry and egg businesses are moving from wet markets to packaged and online formats, where hygiene, freshness and trust decide whether consumers switch.

• Packaged and online meat is growing
• Hygiene perceptions drive outlet choice
• Farm practices affect supply and quality

An integrated poultry company, working in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

An integrated poultry company

Sector

Meat & poultry

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Quantitative research, Offline data collection (CAPI), Qualitative research

The company relied on contract farmers to raise its birds, but experienced farmers were leaving for competitors, and new farmers were hard to recruit. Management needed to understand what farmers valued in a partnership and where the company fell short.

• Deliver on the brief: understanding contract poultry farmers’ experiences.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of contract farmers.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 8 weeks.

The work focused on 900 contract farmers.

• contract farmers900

Audiences we typically reach in meat & poultry

Meat and egg consumersRetailers and butchersOnline buyersPoultry farmersRestaurant buyers

Coverage: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana. Market: India.

• India

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Farmer survey
3. 3In-depth interviews
4. 4Insight

Interviewers visited farms to survey farmers about chick quality, feed supply, veterinary support, payment terms, growing charges and communication with field staff, in Tamil and Telugu. In-depth interviews with farmers who had left explored their reasons in detail.

Quantitative researchOffline data collection (CAPI)Qualitative research

contract farmers

900

• Respondents were selected across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

interviews

30

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person on tablets (CAPI), with time and location recorded for every interview.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Delayed payments and inconsistent chick quality were the main frustrations, more than growing charges.

Reliability built loyalty more effectively than higher rates.

• The company introduced payment within a fixed number of days after each batch, improved hatchery quality controls and trained field staff to share batch performance data with farmers.
• Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.

What we recommended, and the client put into practice

• Farmer retention improved over the following year.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: why do consumers prefer one outlet?