Variables for the internal environment

The questionnaire developed from the conceptual framework included six variables for the internal environmentthree farmer characteristics (i.e. age, education and fruit farming experience) and three farm characteristics (i.e. farm size, land ownership, and

fruit production). The questionnaire also had screening questions that included income source and main fruit grown by the farmers. These two variables were also categorised as internal environment variables. The interviews and discussion with the respondents (key people and farmers) confirmed that all the proposed variables were relevant. The respondents also provided their opinions on each variable:

x Agefarmers of different ages usually respond to the environment differently. These participants indicated that age affected the speed of their decision making. "Younger farmers often make quick decisions with self-confidence, while older farmers make decisions based on their experience", one of the respondents provided as her opinion on age.

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x Educationit is expected that better educated farmers are more likely to adopt a good agricultural practice standard in order to participate in HMs. One of the respondents stated: "... farmers who have higher qualification usually understand the market situation, and they are good at understanding the principles of good agricultural practices".

x Fruit farming experiencean influential factor that contributes to farm efficiency, profitability and HM participation. "Experienced farmers can respond to farming and marketing problems as well as weather variation and market uncertainty", a respondent replied to explain farming experience.

x Farm sizethis factor provides a positive effect on strategic decisions for further farm development because large size brings the advantage of economies of scale. A government official stated: "Large-scale farmers usually have better market opportunities because modern market buyers [e.g. exporters and hypermarkets] prefer to deal with large volumes".

x Land ownershipownership of farm resources, such as land area, brings about competitive advantage for farmers. A farmer commented: "Land ownership provides me with a sense of belonging, which contributes to better farm development and good practices".

x Fruit productionvolumes of fruit reflect farm productivity, when compared with fruit farm sizes. A farmer who sold his produce to supermarket buying agents commented: "I do not have more area to grow fruit, but I have been able to increase my fruit production over the last three years".

x Income sourcea variable that was used to select farmer respondents whose main source of income came from fruit farming (more than 80% of total income), for the sample (see section 5.5.1). Many farmers only earned their income from fruit, while other farmers had supplementary incomes from other crops. An official commented: "... farmers who grow other crops together with fruit can reduce price risk", and "... farmers who have incomes from other work apart from fruit farming can expand their fruit farm business towards high- value market participation".

x Fruit grownanother variable was used to select farmer respondents who grew one of these following fruit crops: durian, mangosteen and rambutan as their main fruit crop. These fruit crops were usually sold to different markets. A

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farmer replied: "I mainly grow durian because it has high demands in export markets".

The respondents also suggested some additional variables related to SMDs:

x Genderparticipants indicated that gender was relevant to HM participation. "There are a significant number of female farmers playing an important role in agricultural cooperatives and fruit quality improvement", one of the respondents explained.

x Household sizewas another variable that contributed to HM participation. One of the respondents commented: "... big families usually have many helpers at peak times, such as for harvesting and grading. This brings about quality fruit production served to the market"

x Total farm size and fruit farm sizeparticipants suggested that farm size variable should be separated into two variables based on total farm area, or the area used to grow fruit. Some of the respondents commented: "Many fruit farmers also grow other crops such as rubber trees: therefore, the term 'farm size' can means either 'total farm size' or 'fruit farm size'".

x Pick-up trucks and motorcycles participants suggested that farm size could also be indicated by the number of vehicles used in the fruit farm business. Two types of vehicles commonly used by the farmers were pick-up trucks and motorcycles with trailers. One respondent pointed out: "One thing that we can know the size of a farm is the number of vehicles used by the farmers. Larger farms usually have more pick-up trucks, while a small farm may have only a motorcycle with trailer".

x Fruit salesare linked to fruit production because farms that had high production usually had high sales. However, higher production and sales were not always created only by large-size farms. Smaller-sized farms that had high productivity could have high production and sales. One respondent explained: "With the same volume of production, farmers who produced higher quality fruit could have higher sales because they normally received higher prices".

x Cooperative membershipmost members of agricultural cooperatives have opportunities to sell their produce to high-value markets such as hypermarkets and exporters. A farmer, who was a member of an agricultural cooperative said:

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"We can sell fruit to hypermarkets because the cooperative has good relationships with hypermarkets"