The actors that influence the customers’ purchase intentation towards biomulch / Nabilah Nor Ain Mohamad Zainal

Mulch is any substances that applied on the soil surface. Mulching is important to control weeds, minimize nutrient leaching, reduce pest infestation, lower soil temperature and retain soil moisture. Plastic mulch has been widely used among farmers throughout the world for the last 10 years. However, the main drawback of using this mulch is that it is difficult to dispose of plastic films as it is not biodegradable and thus it leads to pollution to the environment. For that reason, BioMulch is a newly created product that comes in the form of powder. It does not only act as a mulch but also as a fertilizer. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that influence the customers' purchase intention towards BioMulch. The researcher used a structured questionnaire as the main instrument to collect the data. 384 citizens of Perlis were the chosen sample as the respondents who have an interest in gardening and selling agricultural products via the purposive sampling technique. Frequency analysis, descriptive test, reliability analysis, Pearson’s correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to analyse the data by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The research result showed that perceived quality (ß=0.229, p<0.01) and subjective norm (ß=0.592, p<0.01) were significantly related to the purchase intention towards BioMulch. However, attitude and perceived usefulness were not significant to the purchase intention towards BioMulch. Therefore, customers should be given more exposure to the benefits of using BioMulch in influencing their purchase intention towards BioMulch.