Case study: Interviews

The next phase was to further complement the postal questionnaire results and the data obtained from earlier phases of the study by investigating the process and drivers that bring about change in the sector through case study interviews in two selected regions. Interviews were seen as the best way of doing this, especially by targeting the whole supply chain, including growers, their suppliers and the retail sector. Interviews would enable the generation of data that would allow the researcher to explore deeper underlying issues and to interact with the interviewee by having a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion (Flowerdew and Martin, 2005).

4.2.2.1.

Setting up the case study

Following the analysis of data obtained in earlier phases, it was decided that the case study should focus on two geographically separated regions. Following careful scrutiny of the data, it was decided that the two regions to be studied should be Kent and the East of Scotland. The following reasons were taken into consideration: 1. The first and most important is that, since the impact of climate change was the

main theme of this study, the two regions should have very different climate change predictions. From the probabilistic projections of plant disease obtained in chapter 5 (section 5.4), it was evident that whilst Scotland and Northern England were predicted to have the greatest change in plant disease incidence, Kent would have only slight changes or even remain the same with respect to

disease incidence for the three diseases being studied. These would be used to elucidate responses from the growers on climate change impacts and adaptations. 2. The weather of the two regions is quite different with Scotland being much

wetter and colder, whilst Kent is amongst the warmest and driest areas in Great Britain, thus affecting crop productivity and disease incidence differently in the two regions.

3. There were enough growers in both regions to enable sufficient participants to meet the target of 20 growers per region.

4. The Scottish strawberry sector had been a smaller player through most of the study period between 1920 and 1990 (see Figure 2-10), whereas the Kent based industry was considered to be one of the key players in the sector; some of the Marketing bodies were also based in Kent. Yields in Scotland were also found to be lower than on the average English farm. This gave rise to the possibility of comparing a highly developed sector in Kent with a less developed sector in Scotland.

5. The two regions are located at different distances from the main markets in Great Britain, opening up the possibility of different ways of marketing the crop and adapting to the different types of market available.

Unlike the postal questionnaire, the case study sample also included suppliers and retailers that feed into the sector in these two regions. These would be identified at a later stage through the growers’ responses.

4.2.2.2.

Setting up the interview schedule

For the purposes of this study, and considering the type of data sought, a semi- structured interview was deemed to be the best interviewing method to be used. This type of interview lies somewhere between a structured interview (in which respondents are asked fixed questions and kept within a strict interviewing schedule) and an unstructured interview (which has no strict procedures to follow, no order of questions and could allow the conversation to flow in any direction) (Sarantakos, 1994). The semi-structured interview used in this case had a number of fixed themes which emerged from the postal questionnaire and areas within the themes, where the discussion was allowed to flow quite freely.

Once the themes had been identified and the type of interview schedule chosen, a number of questions were used to discuss certain themes with the respondent.

A number of drafts were prepared until the final interview schedule was ready for use. Feedback from a mock interview with the editor of The Organic Way of Garden Organic was also taken into account. The schedule was divided into 4 sections as follows:

4.2.2.2.1.

Section A: The Farm business

This section was further divided into three themes. The first covered a number of general questions regarding the ownership and size of the farm, and the relative age of the respondent. The remaining questions related to issues arising from labour, such as cost and supply.

The next theme coveredFarm business and drivers affecting the sector. Within this, the respondent was asked about the production system, how they saw the future of the sector, and what they think are the most productive methods. They were also asked about the marketing methods used and their relationship with the supermarkets or market.

The third theme was titled Strawberries in the area and probed issues arising from the different geographies of the two regions, such as local threats and opportunities and why they chose that area to set up their business.

4.2.2.2.2.

Section B: Strawberry diseases and disease management

This section was divided into three themes. The first was titled Importance of plant

disease and asked questions about the most frequent diseases and how they detect

and identify them.

The next theme was titled Disease management and explored ways growers deal with disease and methods they use.

The third theme was titledWhat does the future hold in terms of disease management

and included how changes in the pesticides directive might impact growers’ livelihoods, and the extent to which this may be a threat to the industry.

4.2.2.2.3.

Section C: Climate change

In this section of the interview, the interviewees were first asked whether they thought climate change would affect them; they were then invited to discuss how their opinions might change when shown probabilistic projections of plant disease for their region, and then the whole of Great Britain.

Threats that emerged from the analysis of the postal questionnaire were discussed to determine impact and adaptation capacity. The issue of opportunities was then discussed with the interviewees.

4.2.2.2.4.

Appendix: Impacts on inputs and outputs

Within this section, data that would help build supply chain diagrams were collected. Data collected here would also help build scenarios of where impacts will be most felt along the supply chain.

4.2.2.3.

Choosing the participants

The interview sample population in each region was set at 20 growers, plus another 10-15 representatives of the supply/retail chain for the two regions together. This is deemed to be a large enough sample for qualitative research, where the main objective is not to be representative of a larger population but to provide detailed understanding of the main processes affecting structural change in the strawberry sector and growers’ attitudes towards the potential impacts of climate change.

At this stage, the names and contact details of the latter group were not known. These would be obtained through the appendix section of the interview and by snowballing (asking the growers to recommend names of other growers and key supply chain actors that could be interested in participating in the interviews (Sarantakos, 1994)). A list of growers in the two regions was based on two sources initially: a) growers that had responded to the questionnaire; and b) growers whose contact details were publicly available on the internet. At the beginning of the interview process, 10 growers in each region had accepted invitations to take part. The remainder would be collected through snowballing.

The interviews were carried out on the growers’ property over a two week period in each region; in mid November 2009 in Scotland and early December 2009 in Kent.

The time of the year was specifically chosen to avoid periods when growers would be very busy.

The interviews were recorded using GarageBand®’09 voice-recording software (by Apple), supplemented with notes taken during the interview. In total, 53 interviews were completed, 41 of which were growers (20 in Kent and 21 in Scotland), and 12 suppliers/retailers. This generated a large amount of vital qualitative data.

4.2.2.4.

Transcribing and coding the interviews

Interviews were selectively transcribed into separate word documents. Transcriptions excluded some parts of the conversation that were considered to be beyond the scope or theme of the study. Information for Annex 1 of the Interview Schedule was summarised.

For the purpose of this study, every attempt was made to try and keep the analysis and interpretation of results as simple as possible, in order to obtain as clear and straightforward a coding practice as possible and without making it too complicated with the risk of falling into pitfalls of interpretation of some results.

Coding was done using software aids such as NVivo®8 and Microsoft Office Excel® 2007. NVivo was first used to group the responses of all interviewees according to the question. The responses were then coded according to the response obtained, tabulated into an excel sheet that contained all the responses to the different questions, and divided by respondent and code type. Emerging categories from responses were filtered according to the category type and this resulted in a number of themes and interconnecting and independent issues. Quotes that highlighted certain issues were also collected for use later on in discussions13. For instance, one of the themes to emerge from this study was the impact of labour on the strawberry sector. Whilst being freestanding as a theme, it was influenced by other issues, such as regional differences in the industry, and also by plant disease. Categories such as the size of the farm and production methods used were also found to influence this theme.

13_{To keep the anonymity of respondents, their names were coded, and use of quotes was attributed to}

a particular respondent through their code. Codes give an indication of the location and the type of respondent as follows: K=Kent, S=Scotland, G=Grower, S=representative from supply chain, being either supplier or marketing body.