Permitir la respiración de frutas frescas

The results of the pilot study for both qualitative interviews and questionnaire pre-tests provided lessons learned in regards to conducting the main survey and revising the main questionnaire.

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6.6.1 Lessons learned for the main survey

The pilot study also provided several key lessons that needed to be taken into account when conducting the main survey. These were as follows:

x Face-to-face interviews were the most appropriate method for the main survey, because the survey involved many smallholders, who needed simple explanations and clarification in regards to some technical terms, and, in addition to some questions that could not be immediately understood;

x Coordination with local organisations related to the fruit sector was essential, because they provided useful information for planning and organising the pilot study. For example, the Q-GAP certification agency suggested where high- value market users were most likely to be found, while the Provincial Cooperative Office informed about the meeting schedule of agricultural cooperative members who were farming fruit. It was also necessary to have assistance from someone who was usually in contact with the farmers because access to fruit farms was not very easy, especially when the interviewer was not familiar with the location of the farms. Some farmers considered the interviewer a stranger, so they denied their cooperation;

x The period between August and December was deemed appropriate for the main survey because it was not a busy time for the farmers. Their busy time is usually during the harvest season between May and July. However, an important issue regarding this period concerned the fact that a typhoon often comes in mid-September to early November and this could cause flooding, as happened in 2011. Some areas in Chanthaburi could be badly affected if this weather event occurred. This issue needed to be taken into account and therefore the interviewer attempted to interview as many farmers as possible in the early part of the period.

x Colloquial language was an essential component in the interviews. At the beginning of the pilot study, the interviewer visited the fruit farmers accompanied by some local agricultural and cooperative extension officers, who were proficient in using colloquial language of the local style. This speaking technique worked very well with the farmers and was applied by the interviewer throughout the main survey;

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x The willingness of the farmers to provide correct information for the interviews was very critical. Some farmers did not feel comfortable or sufficiently confident to answer the questions, which could have led to unreliable answers. This issue was dealt with by building a rapport through talking about issues that interested and benefited them (such as government financial support and market policies), or referring to some people they knew before entering the interview;

x It was necessary to remind the farmers about the need to be aware of the purpose of some questions in the questionnaire. In section 2, Question 20 asked for all the markets the farmers used for their main fruit crop which yield the most sales – not for all the fruit produce on their farms. Question 21 to 25 asked about the main market in which the farmers mostly sold their main fruit crop – not about all the markets they used. In addition, section 4 focused on the external environment factors that impacted on their fruit farm business in a

positive way – not in a negative way;

x For some of the farmers, the interviews took too long due to the following reasons: Some farmers would like to talk not only about what they were being interviewed on, but also about their families, neighbours, current situations and other unrelated topics. Other farmers, such as some certified farmers, were not certain when they obtained their first certification, and they needed time to find their certificates in order to answer Question 16. The format of the questionnaire also caused some interviews to take a longer period, especially sections three and four that involved ordinal scaling. The interviewer had to repeat the levels of agreement or importance of the factors for every statement. Many farmers took time to think about which level they should choose.

6.6.2 Lessons learned for revising the questionnaire

The pilot study also provided lessons learned in regards to revising the questionnaire. These were as follows:

x The knowledge obtained from the pilot study contributed to revising some questions and to designing more appropriate choices in close-ended questions;

x Unimportant questions were cut off and complex questions were simplified to make the questionnaire more concise and avoid redundancy that could help shorten the length of the interview. For example, some goal statements were repetitive with complex and long sentences;

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x Some new questions were added, e.g. questions about harvesting, reasons to apply for the Q-GAP certification, and reasons for using a particular market;

x Wording (or phrasing) used in this questionnaire was the most challenging, because it needed to be easily understood by the fruit farmers, but it still had to maintain the same meaning as required within this academic research. Moreover, translation into Thai was also challenging, because some English words or phrases are not normally used in the Thai language. Again, translation of the questionnaire needed to find suitable Thai wording that could maintain the same meaning as that designed in the English version.

6.7 Summary

The pilot study was conducted in June 2014 in order to gather information about the fruit sector in Chanthaburi province, identify variables related to strategic marketing decisions of the fruit farmers, and pre-test the questionnaire to be used in the main survey. The pilot study included eight face-to-face semi-structured interviews with government officials and 20 farmers. The questions asked in these semi-structured interviews were based on the conceptual framework, which included the internal environment, the external environment, and the farmers' goals.

Qualitative interview data were analysed by coding and classification into categories and sub-categories in an iterative way. The results show that the internal environment consisted of farmer characteristics (e.g. age, education, fruit farm experience) and farm characteristics (e.g. farm size, production, and vehicles used). The external environment consisted of the micro-environment (e.g. fruit buyers, cooperatives, and input supplies), and the macro-environment (e.g. economic factors, social factors, and environmental factors). Based on the qualitative results, the questions in the preliminary questionnaire were further revised by removing some irrelevant questions and designing new questions for the new variables suggested. The preliminary questionnaire was repeatedly revised and then pre-tested with 20 fruit farmers. The results of the questionnaire pre-test found several problems in the questionnaire, such as a misunderstanding of questions, confusing questions, ambiguity of words and wording that needed to be clarified, questions that did not match their real practice, and questions that were complex and redundant. Moreover, the pilot study provided many lessons

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learned in regards to conducting the main survey and better revise the questionnaire so it became a valid research instrument in this study.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

7 Description of the sample: Comparisons between the two sample

groups

7.1 Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to present descriptive analyses of the sample, classified into two groups: farmers who used traditional marketing channels (TM users) and farmers who used high-value marketing channels (HM users). The chapter is divided into seven sections. Following the introduction, section two describes statistics and variables included in the descriptive analysis for the two sample groups. Sections three and four describe the characteristics of the respondents and their fruit farm businesses. Section five presents current markets used by the respondents and market attributes. Section six presents strategic intention of the fruit farmers regarding fruit crops grown and the markets they will use during the next five years. The final section summarises the results.