Decision on applying Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) standard in tea production of households in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region

ion food hygiene and safety 3 1.2. GAPs Production adoption 1.2.1. Studying factors determining production selection according to GAP standards (i) The research identifying the factors affecting to the technology application in general and agricultural production according to GAP standards of households in particular; (ii) The research focuses on the adoption dynamics of the food safety controls; and (iii) The study focuses on farmers' perceptions and attitudes toward production good agricultral practices (GAPs) Results from previous studies have shown that there are two groups of internal and external factors that influence farmers' decision to adopt GAP standards. Each group of factors can be divided into two specific groups of factors: (i) Internal factors: The characteristics of household head and household and Technical requirement and (ii) External factor: Market and government policies. 1.2.2. The main approaches in studies of GAPs selection determinant factors In order to carry out studies related to identifying factors affecting farmers' choice, the main methods used in the previous studies were qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative approach through interviews, group discussions ... to study the factors affecting farmers' awareness and motivation when applying GAP standards for the litchi (Truong et al., 2002) or production food (Zhou & Jin, 2009). Quantitative methods were used in Doss and Morris (2001), Tran (2009), Sriwichailamphan (2008), Josph (2002), Kassiousmis et al (2004), Abdulai et al (2008), Chouichom et al. (2010), Pongvinyoo (2014), Saengabha et al (2015) ... The logit or probit models with dependent variables being binary variables are often used. In addition, some studies use a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods to identify and estimate the impact of factors affecting household choices (Mudalige and Henson, 2006; Hong Trang, 2016). 1.3. Theory of the household decision There are two main approaches for studying technology selection decision of household. The first approach is based on the theory of Peasant economics (Ellis, 1980). The second approach, based on sociological theories, where psychological structures are used to explain farmer behavior. 1.4. Researching gaps Many previous researches have mentioned and researched on agricultural production in the direction of food hygiene and safety in general and production according to GAP standards in particular. But, there have no research focused on explaining the household's decision to maintain GAP for agricultural production. The thesis focuses on: (i) studying the factors that influence the adoption / continued adoption decision of GAP standard for producing tea of farmer households; ii) estimating the influence of factors on two decisions (adoption /continued adoption) of tea production according to GAP standards of households; (iii) three new factors can affect to two decisions of tea farmers are added in to the research model: technical requirements of GAP production process; GAP certification fee; received support of government. CHAPTER 2: THEORITICAL BASIC FOR SELECTION DECISION OF FARMER HOUSEHOLD IN PRODUCING AGRICULTURE ACCORDING TO GAPs 2.1. Basic theory of selection decision Peasant economics theory of Ellis (1980) is main theory used in this thesis. 2.2. Characteristic of production selection decision of farme The main characteristic of famer's decision are: pragmatic; anxiety (fear) when making decisions to choose production innovation due to risk aversion psychology; decisions were made at a low level, due to the low assets and the risk fearing; seldom changed by afraid to innovate, working by experiences; crowd psychology, affected by the phenomenon of psychological spread; flexibility due to small-scale production; the person who has power decision of a farmer household is usually the household head or the elderly in the household and is usually male; The decision to select a household's production depends on the household's goals, production resources, demand, technical requirement and technologies, and government policies. 2.3. Agricultural production of household according to GAPs 2.3.1. Conception and the role of GAPs in agricultural production 4 GAP is a standard, a process that consists of the principles, procedures and standards established to address environmental sustainability, socioeconomic, aims to create safe food or agricultural products for both producers and consumers, as well as protecting the environment. Manufacturing according to GAP standards contributes to create products that ensure safety for both producers and consumers, traceability; improve knowledge for producers, increase production productivity; increased producer responsibility; raise consumer's believe; protect the ecological environment. 2.3.2. Selection decision of households according to GAPs Farm households' selection decision on production is the process and outcome of their conscious choice of activities in agricultural production. The selection decision on GAPs production of the household is the decision to choose whether to apply / maintain GAPs for the household's production. 2.3.3 Some GAPs are adopted for agricultural production Some GAP standards that are currently applied to agricultural production include “GlobalGAP, AseanGAP, QGAP, JGAP, ChinaGAP, VietGAP, Rainforest Alliances certified, UTZ Certified” In which, some standard have been applied to produce tea such as: VietGAP, Rainforest Alliances certified, UTZ Certified, GlobalGAP. However, VietGAP standards are applied by most farmers to their tea production, standards such as UTZ, Rainforest, and GlobalGAP are applied and maintained by some enterprises. 2.4. Producing tea according to GAPs 2.4.1. Conception Good agricultural production practices for tea in Vietnam are the principles and procedures to guide organizations and individuals to produce, harvest, preserve and certify tea to ensure food hygiene and safety, improving product quality, ensuring social welfare and health for producers, consumers and protecting the environment, as a basis for traceability of products. 2.4.2. The content of producing tea according to GAPs According to the regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (2008), tea production according to VietGAP standards will include (i) Assessing and selecting tea production areas; (ii) Seed and rootstock; (iii) Land and material management; (iv) Irrigation water; (v) Fertilizers and additives; (vi) Planting protection and chemical use; (vii) Harvesting, preserving and transporting; (viii) managing and treating waste; (ix) Workers; (x) Working conditions; (xi) Documentation, record and traceability; (xii) Internal inspection; (xiii) Complaints and resolve of complaints. 2.4.3. The different between GAPs tea and tradition tea production With traditional tea production, it does not follow specific regulations, does not trace the origin of products, production by experience, habits of the producers, food hygiene and safety are not been committed and monitored the implementation by any process. 2.4.4. Factors affecting to GAPs tea selection decision of households Household economic behavior is influenced by internal factors and external factors (Ellis, 1980). Internal factors include household factors such as household characteristics and technical factors such as production conditions, technical requirements. External factors are market factors and governmental factors. CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY 3.1. Conceptual framework and variables 3.1.1. Conceptual framework 5 Figure 3.1: The production selection decision of household Source: Author synthesized and adjusted Selection decision of household is researched in two stage: The first adoption GAPs for producing tea and continued adoption/give up producing tea following GAPs. 3.1.2. Research variables Table 3.1: Explaining scale, bases and hypotheses the impact of variables Variables Explain Sources Expectation Characteristic of household head and household Adoption Continued adoption gender Gender of household head = 1 if household head is man, otherwise = 0 Ellis (1980), Truong & Ryuichi Yamada (2002), Doss & Morris (2000), Kumar (1994) + + Age The age of household head Ellis (1980), Truong & Ryuichi Yamada (2002), Sriwichailamphan et al (2008), Quyet Thang (2018). - - Ethnic The ethnic of household head, = 1 if household head is Kinh, otherwise = 0 Karki et al (2011), Tran (2011) + + education The education level of household head, = 1 if household head of high school, otherwise = 0 Feder et al (1995), Truong & Ryuichi Yamada (2002), Kassioumis et al (2004), Liu et al (2011). + + Experience The years of tea production of household head Chouichom &Yamao (2010), Saengabha et al (2015), Wabbi (2002). + + Political Household is member of political organization = 1, otherwise = 0 Joseph (2013), Saengabha (2015) + + Distance The distance from household to center of district, km Deng et al (2010), Karki et al (2011), Hong Trang (2016) + + attitude The attitude of household with GAPs, attitude = 1 if positive, otherwise = 0 Pongvinyoo (2014), Masahiro et al (2016), Vu et al (2016) + + Benefit Awareness of household of GAPs benefit, scale is likert scale Holleran (1999), Hobbs (2003), Jayasinghe & Mudalige (2005), Zhou & Jin (2009), Hong Trang (2016). + + Technical Areas The areas of tea of household, unit: ha Ellis (1980), Feder et al (1985) + + Technical requirement Awareness of household about technical requirement of GAPs , Likert scale Fao (1993), interview (appendix 3) + + Registration fee The idea of household about the registration fee, likert scale interview (appendix 3) + Market Technical requirement Characteristic of household head and household Selection decision (adoption/ continued adoption) of producing tea according to GAP of household Market Government policies 6 Variables Explain Sources Expectation Market requirement Awareness of household about market requirement of GAPs tea, Likert scale Holleran et al (1999), Jaya singhe Mudalige (2005), Sriwichailamphan et al (2008) + + revenue Revenue of GAPs tea, million dong Vu et al (2018) + Government Support Household who got support from government = 1, otherwise = 0 Interview (appendix 3) + + Government policies Evaluation of household of GAPs production government policies, Likert scale Zhou & Jin (2009), Deng et al (2010), Saengabha et al (2015) + + Source: Author synthesized 3.2. Research methodology 3.2.1. Method of collection data 3.2.1.1. Method of collection secondary data Secondary data are collected and synthesized from published documents such as Statistical Yearbook, documents of MARD In addition, secondary documents are collected through documents published in magazines, journals, mass media, internet ... 3.2.1.2. Method of collection primary data Indepth- interview method The thesis interviews 30 people who are heads of households and district commune officials. Including 3 commune officials, 3 district officials and 24 households head who planting tea in 2 provinces Thai Nguyen and Yen Bai. This method is used to collect ideas, exploit information, explore additional factors to the research model, and add ideas to the questionnaire The interview questionnaire content consists of two parts: Information about the interviewee and the content of interview (situation of tea production according to GAP standards in the locality, advantages and disadvantages of GAPs tea production, the reason why households choose, maintain or abandon GAP, opinions of interviewees on policies, state support for tea production according to current GAP standards, recommendations of interviewees ...). Survey method Sample ● Selection criteria The thesis selects research place based on the following criteria: (i) Farmers are planting tea according to GAP standards in the Northern Midland and Mountainous area; (ii) Farmers had applied GAP standards to tea production; (iii) The tradition tea production household in NMM region. ● Sample selection method Research sample in the topic was selected by cluster random sampling method. Specifically, the sampling procedure takes three steps as follows: Step 1: Selection sample by the place and household The thesis selects research samples in localities where have large tea areas. Three provinces are selected: Thai Nguyen, Yen Bai and Phu Tho. In each province, two districts are selected and two communes in each districts are selected for the survey. Step 2: Determining the sample size The thesis conducts a survey of 450 households in 3 provinces, after collected and checked, 443 observations are accepted so the actual sample size of the thesis is 443 observations. Survey questionnaire Based on the overview, research frameworks and results obtained from qualitative interviews, the content of the questionnaire surveying of the thesis is designed. The content of the questionnaire included the research purpose and the contents of the survey in four groups of factors: (i) Characteristics of households and household heads, (ii) Technical condition, (iii) Market (iv) Government. 7 Conducting data collection The thesis collects survey data by face to face interview with traditional tea farmers, households are applying GAPs and households that abandoned GAPs. This method takes time and effort but gives good and reliable survey results. 3.2.2. Method of analyzing data 3.2.2.1. Description methodology This method is used to analyze the current production situation of tea production (GAPs tea and traditional tea) of households in the NMM region and describe the factors affecting the household's decision to producing tea according to GAPs. 3.2.2.2. Exploratory Factor Analysis Thesis uses the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA to calculate the scale of qualitative variables (likert scale) in research model. 3.2.2.3. Endogenous test and instrument variable 3.2.2.4. Regression analysis Based on the research framework, the thesis implements two research models: Model 1: Whether adoption or not adoption GAPs for tea of household in NMM region; Model 2: Whether continued adoption or abandon GAPs for tea of household in NMM region; The different between two models (i) The first decision (Y1, adoption decision, the first adoption, the first time tea households has to know and apply GAPs, the second decision (Y2), the maintaining decision which happen after (the first decision) the first stage end, the farmers have used to GAPs, have experiences and get some certain results; (ii) The continued adoption decision affected by factors after experiences the first stage, so some new factors may appear. Specifically, if Y1= f(x), so Y2 = g(x,x2|Y1). Figure 3.1: Decision of tea household with GAPs In which: Xi are independent variables affected to GAPs household decision and can continued affected to maintaining adoption GAPs decision of households; Zi are independent variables appear after households have participated GAP in the first stage and only affected to continue adoption decision of households. The specific model (i) The Probit model is used to estimate the factors affected to adoption decision of household in adoption or not adoption GAPs for tea. (ii) The Bivariate Probit model is used to evaluate the factor affected to maintaining GAPs decision for tea of household. 3.3. Research data Table 3.2: Data of research sample Mean Std Min Max Thainguyen Province (%) 45.6 0.4986 0 1 Yenbai Province (%) 23.7 0.4257 0 1 Phutho Province (%) 30.7 0.4618 0 1 Household head is male (%) 53.5 0,4993 0 1 Age of household head (age) 47.8 8.0798 26 69 Kinh ethnic group (%) 74.9 0.4338 0 1 From high school to above (%) 34.3 0.4753 0 1 Member of political organization (%) 74.9 0.4338 0 1 Xi Adoption decision Maintaining adoption decision Zi 8 The number of labors in household (person) 3.8 1.0334 1 6 The distance from household to district center (km) 15.9 6.9192 1.3 32 Household who have never adopted GAP (%) 30.47 0 0 0 Household who have adopted GAP (%) 69.525 0.4608 0 1 Household who are maintaining GAP (%) 44.22 0.4479 0 1 Source: Results from survey CHAPTER 4. GAPs TEA PRODUCTION IN NORTHERN MIDLAND AND MOUNTAINOUS REGION 4.1. Natural and socio-economic characteristics of NMM region 4.2. Overview of tea production according to GAP standards in NMM region 4.2.1. GAPs tea production in NMM region Table 4.4. Area of GAPs tea in NMM region, from 2015-2018 Unit: ha Province 2015 2018 Compare 2018-2015 (%) Laocai 1000 0 -100 Thainguyen 565.4 351.109 -37.9 Yenbai 2042 15.52 -99.23 Phutho 1954.2 18.504 -99.05 Tuyenquang 265.78 37.571 -85.86 Laichau 82.2 41.2 -49.87 Dienbien 17.321 0 -100 Bacgiang 15.723 0 -100 Caobang 7.1748 0 -100 Langson 19.3005 0 -100 Hoabinh 15.723 0 -100 Sonla 128.7 22.8 -82.28 BacKan 82.95 23.7 -71.42 Hagiang 1063.7 1 -99.90 Total 7260.175 511.404 -92.96 Source: IRC (2018), Mard (2015) There is a sharp decrease in GAPs tea area. As of February 2018, 6 provinces had no GAPs tea, 3 provinces lost over 99% of GAPs tea area, the province with the largest percentage of GAPs tea belonged to Thai Nguyen. 4.2.2. Implement tea production process according to GAP standards Implementing GAP process of farmers is not really serious, or halfheartedly applying GAP for producing tea quite popular. Farmers household still feel difficulty when applying the GAP process to tea production. 4.2.3. Investment cost for producing GAPs tea The cost of GAP tea production is higher than the cost of regular tea production (mainly due to initial investment costs and labor costs), while households receive only partial support and have to invest first and then received the support later, this makes it difficult for households to choose GAP tea production. 4.2.4. Productivity of GAPs tea production Applying GAPs, the tea productivity has increased and higher than the traditional tea (the productivity of GAP tea producing households is approximately 120 quintals of fresh tea / ha, traditional tea reaches 110. 9 quintals / ha). This result by the GAP tea producing households have applied the process from seed selection, soil treatment, tending, to harvesting, all based on the growth and development cycle of tea plants, since then tea has a high productivity. 4.2.5. The market sale of GAPs tea The system of GAP tea consumption channels is similar to that of traditional tea, there is no system of GAP tea products. Consumer awareness has not changed significantly, besides the GAP standard process is not strict in the supervision of harvesting, processing, and packaging ..., so it creates the low trust for consumers. 4.3. The situation of factors affecting to GAPs tea production decision of households in NMM region 9 4.4. Evaluation the results of GAPs tea production 4.4.1. The advantage results In recent years, there have been new households registering to apply GAPs for tea production and a few of households in the region have maintained GAP for tea production. Farmers who have been trained in the GAP process have changed their perceptions of the risks of traditional production and the benefits of the GAPs to the health for both producers and consumers, thereby changing in production. 4.4.2. The disadvantage and its reason The tea areas applying GAPs on the total tea area of NMM region is still too low (0.53%). The obey GAP process of farmers is not really serious, the half-heartedly adoption has still quite popular. Farmers still have felt difficulty in applying GAP process for tea production. The market for GAPs tea products still faces many difficulties. The State's support policy has not been effective. CHAPTER 5. EMPIRICAL RESULTS OF ADOPTION AND CONTINUED ADOTION TEA PRODUCTION ACCORDING TO GAP STANDARDS 5.1. Result of exploratory factor analysis 5.2. GAPs adoption decision for tea production The result of Probit model is presented in Table 5.3. Table 5.1: Factors affecting to GAPs adoption decision of tea households Independent variables Φ (Y=1|X) Marginal effect (dy/dx) Household head is male 0.2620 (0.2416) 0.0259 (0.0238) Age of household head -0.0071 (0.0208) -0.0007 (0.0021) The ethnic of household head -0.4064 (0.2541) -0.0402 (0.0247) The education level of household head 0.3938 (0.2557) 0.0389 (0.0252) Tea production experience of household head -0.0258 (0.0224) -0.0025 (0.0022) Household head is a member of political organization 0.8029** (0.2602) 0.0794** (0.0246) The distance from household to district center -0.01117 (0.0229) -0.0011 (0.0022) The attitude of household head with GAPs 2.8368*** (0.3483) 0.2807*** (0.0255) Estimated area of tea 0.9989*** (0.2823) 0.0988** (0.0263) The household who got the support of government -0.2037 (0.3561) -0.0201 (0.0351) State policies for producing tea 0.2830** (0.1298) 0.0280** (0.0125) GAPs tea benefit awareness of household 0.5656** (0.1499) 0.0559** (0.0142) Market requirement awareness of household 0.4393** (0.1519) 0.0435** (0.0141) Technical requirement awareness of household -0.2234 -0.0221 10 Independent variables Φ (Y=1|X) Marginal effect (dy/dx) (0.1427) (0.0140) Const -0.6042 (1.111) Observation 443 443 Pseudo R2 85.35 Note: The value in ( ) is standard deviation of each variables; *, **, and *** present significant level at 10%, 5% & 1% Source: Author calculated Empirical results from the model provides evidence that the household's GAPs adoption decision for tea production is positively influenced by the following factors: (i) The attitude of household head with GAPs; (ii) GAPs tea benefit awareness of household; (iii) Household head is a member of political organization; (iv) Areas of tea; (v) Market requirement awareness of household; (vi) State policies for producing tea. The more household believe in GAPs, know to benefit of GAPs for production and consumption, household head is member of political organization, or the bigger area households have, the higher demand of GAPs tea and the more effective of GAPs production, the more GAPs adoption decision of households are made. This result also explains the situation of applying GAP to tea production of the Northern Midland and Mountainous region. It is (i) psychologically afraid that have ineffectively output; (ii) farmers still mainly have short-term thoughts (profits, selling prices) awareness of safety issues for themselves and customers is not high; (iii) current tea production areas is fragmented which difficult to apply GAP standards; (iv) The market of GAPs tea has not developed, customers do not require or require very little GAPs tea, they do not care about safety production standards; (v) Policies for GAP tea production are still unclear and inaccessible to farmers. This result is a suggestion for proposing to encourage households selecting GAPs for tea production in the NMM region. 5.3. Continued adoption GAPs for tea production of household Table 5.4: Marginal effect of factors affection to continued adoption decision of household in producing tea according to GAPs Total effect Direct effect Indirect effect Household head is male -0.2089** (0.0605) -0.0972** (0.0295) - 0.1117** (0.0310) Age of household head -0.00019 (0.0040) -0.00005 (0.0020) - 0.000135 (0.0020) The ethnic of household head 0.0257 (0.0497) 0.0090 (0.0244) 0.01672 (0.0253) The education level of household head -0.0363 (0.0518) -0.0150 (0.0256) -0.02133 (0.0262) Tea production experience of household head -0.0029 (0.0035) -0.0015 (0.0017) -0.00136 (0.0018) Household head is a member of political organization 0.0425 (0.0536) 0.0257 (0.0264) 0.01677 (0.0272) The distance from household to district center 0.0171** (0.0048) 0.0080** (0.0024) 0.0091** (0.0024) 11 The attitude of household head with GAPs 0.1381* (0.0694) 0.0871** (0.0336) 0.05094** (0.0358) The household who got the support of government 0.5343*** (0.0895) 0.2509*** (0.0435) 0.2834*** (0.0460) Estimated area of tea 0.1635* (0.7534) 0.0843** (0.3788) 0.0792* (0.3746) State policies for