1 To achieve the research objectives, the thesis goes to answer the following questions: INTRODUCTION Reason for research In recent years, the demand for fresh food of citizens has been increasing Especially when incidence of incurable diseases due to consumption of unsafe products, residues of pesticides, and preservatives harmful to consumers seem to be alarmingly increasing According to WHO (2018), Vietnam has about 1.500.000 new cancer cases per each year One of the main causes of this situation is the consumption of unsafe products In the world, consumers are also concerned about the unsafe food (Loc, 2006) The more extensive of international economic integration, the more stringent the technical barriers in trade, food hygiene, and safety requirements Vietnam's exported agricultural products face many risks of being unable to be exported, or being returned due to failing to meet the requirements of food hygiene and safety (Ministry of Industry and Trade, 2015) Therefore, the production and consumption of clean and quality products become more urgent than ever Tea is a perennial industrial crop, with a lifespan of 50 to 70 years Tea contains up to 20 healthy micro elements, cancer prevention, cholesterol reduction, bactericidal, weight loss, stress reduction (Goto, 1993; Uno et al., 2016) Demand for tea consumption in the world until 2024 is forecasted to increase by an average of 3.7% per year (FAO, 2016); Safe tea production has great potentials for further development Tea is one of the main export agricultural products in Vietnam, and it ranks 5th and accounts for 7% of the world's tea export market Vietnam's tea products have been exported to more than 100 countries in the world, of which 90% are raw tea products with low price (equal 1/2 average tea price in the world) (Ministry of Industry and Trade, 2017; VIETTRADE, 2015) One of the reasons for this situation is that Vietnamese tea has not yet met the technical barriers on food safety and hygiene of the developed market like EU and US Safe and sustainable agricultural production is an indispensable trend, receiving the attention of researchers around the world Sriwichailamphan et al (2008), Canavari, Lombardi and Cantonre (2008), Pongvinyoo et al (2014), Vu, Nguyen and Santi (2016) studied adoption Good Agricultura practices (GAPs) in different ways with different methodologies In Vietnam, the previous researches have studied on GAP standards apllied in green vegetables, fruit trees, and cattle products (Dinh Dung, 2009; Nguyen Hung Cuong and Nguyen Vo Linh, 2013; Duc Hiep, 2013; Hong Trang, 2016) These studies mentioned how to increase the GAPs areas and the number of households producing under GAPs, but did not mention how to maintain GAPs Production Currently, Vietnam has less than 1% GAPs tea -producing areas of the total tea areas (MARD, 2018), and the households who have been discontinuing GAPs adoption in tea production are popular Studying of the determinants of adoption and continuing adoption GAP in tea production is an urgent issue to increase the number of households participating and maintaining GAP tea production - What are the different characteristics between producing GAPs tea and tradition tea? - How is current status GAPs tea production in NMM region? - What are the factors and their impacts on adoption of GAPs standard in tea -producing households in NMM region? - What are the factors and their impacts on remaining GAPs standard in tea -producing households in NMM region? - What recommendations can be proposed to promote tea-producing households adopting and maintaining GAPs standard in tean production? Subject and scope of research 3.1 Research subject The research subject is the decision on applying GAP standard in tea- producing households, with a focus on determinants of adopting and remaining GAP standard in tea production 3.2 Scope of research Time scope The primary data were collected from June 2017 to June 2018 The secondary data were collected from 2015 to 2018 Spatial scope The study was carried out in the NMM region, focusing on the provinces with large areas producing GAPs tea: Thai Nguyen (21.361 hectares), Phu Tho (approximately 16,000 hectares), and Yen Bai (approximately 11.000 ha) The findings are the evidences for proposing recommendations to promote GAPs tea production in Vietnam The research sample selection is discussed in detail in Chapter Scope of content The study focused on factors that affect decision of household on adopting and remaining GAP standard in tea production the NMM region In fact, almost tea-producing households are applying VietGAP for producing tea, some other standards like UTZ, Rainforest Alliance however, they are insignificant and only adopted by companies Therefore, within the scope of the thesis, the content of the GAPs process analyzed in this study is the VietGAP process Research methodology Quantitative and qualitative methodology are used in this thesis Vietnam has 34/63 provinces growing tea, the large and main tea production are in NMM region, and Lam Dong Province, with total area of up to 123,669 (MARD, 2018; FAO, 2012) In which, the NMM region accounts for 79.2% area and 74.1% of the national tea outputs There are many localities applying GAPs for tea production early (from 2009), so the time is long enough for the selection and maintaining GAPs behavior can be observed and verified This is an important characteristic that allows research on the adoption and maintaining GAPs for producing tea Desk study NMM region is a region consisting of many localities with similarities in tea production conditions and socioeconomic conditions in rural areas in terms of average income per capital/month in agricultural production areas (GSO, 2016) The findings of the selection decision on GAPs tea production in the NMM region have the prospect of expansion for similar tea producing provinces throughout the country thus will increase the practical significance of the study The thesis structure Therefore, the topic "Decision on applying Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) standard in tea production of households in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region" is selected for the doctoral thesis in agricultural economics Interview Survey Description Regression Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the dissertation consists of six chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review Chapter 2: Theoretical framework for agricultural production technology selection of farmer households in GAP tea production Chapter 3: Research methodology Chapter 4: GAP tea production in Northern Midland and Mountainous region Research objectives and questions Chapter 5: Empirical result of adoption and continued adoption GAP standard in tea production The main objectives of this thesis are to investigate the factors that affect decision on applying GAP standard in tea-producing households in the NMM region Particularly, it studies factors that affect both GAP adoption and GAP remains decisions of the tea-producing households Base on the empirical results, the thesis proposes some recommendations to encourage farmers selecting and maintaining GAPs standards for tea production Chapter 6: Recommendations to promot adoption and continued adoption GAP standards in tea production CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Agricultural production in the direction food hygiene and safety 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 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 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 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 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Conceptual framework and variables 3.1.1 Conceptual framework Variables Characteristic of household head and household Market requirement revenue Selection decision (adoption/ continued adoption) of producing tea according to GAP of household Market Government policies Support Government policies Explain Awareness of household about market requirement of GAPs tea, Likert scale Revenue of GAPs tea, million dong Government Household who got support from government = 1, otherwise = Evaluation of household of GAPs production government policies, Likert scale Sources Holleran et al (1999), Jaya singhe Mudalige (2005), Sriwichailamphan et al (2008) Vu et al (2018) + Expectation Interview (appendix 3) + + Zhou & Jin (2009), Deng et al (2010), Saengabha et al (2015) + + + + Source: Author synthesized Technical requirement 3.2 Research methodology 3.2.1 Method of collection data Figure 3.1: The production selection decision of household 3.2.1.1 Method of collection secondary data 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 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 3.1.2 Research variables 3.2.1.2 Method of collection primary data Table 3.1: Explaining scale, bases and hypotheses the impact of variables Variables Explain Sources Characteristic of household head and household gender Gender of household head = if household head is man, otherwise = Age The age of household head Ethnic The ethnic of household head, = if household head is Kinh, otherwise = education Experience Political Distance attitude Benefit Areas Technical requirement Registration fee The education level of household head, = if household head of high school, otherwise = The years of tea production of household head Household is member of political organization = 1, otherwise = The distance from household to center of district, km The attitude of household with GAPs, attitude = if positive, otherwise = Awareness of household of GAPs benefit, scale is likert scale Technical The areas of tea of household, unit: Awareness of household about technical requirement of GAPs , Likert scale The idea of household about the registration fee, likert scale Market Ellis (1980), Truong & Ryuichi Yamada (2002), Doss & Morris (2000), Kumar (1994) Ellis (1980), Truong & Ryuichi Yamada (2002), Sriwichailamphan et al (2008), Quyet Thang (2018) Karki et al (2011), Tran (2011) Feder et al (1995), Truong & Ryuichi Yamada (2002), Kassioumis et al (2004), Liu et al (2011) Chouichom &Yamao (2010), Saengabha et al (2015), Wabbi (2002) Joseph (2013), Saengabha (2015) Deng et al (2010), Karki et al (2011), Hong Trang (2016) Pongvinyoo (2014), Masahiro et al (2016), Vu et al (2016) Holleran (1999), Hobbs (2003), Jayasinghe & Mudalige (2005), Zhou & Jin (2009), Hong Trang (2016) Indepth- interview method Expectation Adoption Continued adoption + + - - + + + + 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 + + + + + + + + + + Ellis (1980), Feder et al (1985) + + Fao (1993), interview (appendix 3) + + interview (appendix 3) The thesis interviews 30 people who are heads of households and district commune officials Including commune officials, district officials and 24 households head who planting tea in 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… ● 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 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 The number of labors in household (person) The distance from household to district center (km) Household who have never adopted GAP (%) Household who have adopted GAP (%) Household who are maintaining GAP (%) 3.8 15.9 30.47 69.525 44.22 1.0334 6.9192 0.4608 0.4479 3.2.2.1 Description methodology 32 1 Source: Results from survey 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 CHAPTER 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 Thesis uses the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA to calculate the scale of qualitative variables (likert scale) in research model Table 4.4 Area of GAPs tea in NMM region, from 2015-2018 Unit: Province 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) Adoption decision Maintaining adoption decision Xi Laocai Thainguyen Yenbai Phutho Tuyenquang Laichau Dienbien Bacgiang Caobang Langson Hoabinh Sonla BacKan Hagiang Total 2015 2018 1000 565.4 2042 1954.2 265.78 82.2 17.321 15.723 7.1748 19.3005 15.723 128.7 82.95 1063.7 7260.175 351.109 15.52 18.504 37.571 41.2 0 0 22.8 23.7 511.404 Compare 2018-2015 (%) -100 -37.9 -99.23 -99.05 -85.86 -49.87 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -82.28 -71.42 -99.90 -92.96 Source: IRC (2018), Mard (2015) There is a sharp decrease in GAPs tea area As of February 2018, provinces had no GAPs tea, provinces lost over 99% of GAPs tea area, the province with the largest percentage of GAPs tea belonged to Thai Nguyen Zi 4.2.2 Implement tea production process according to GAP standards 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 Thainguyen Province (%) Yenbai Province (%) Phutho Province (%) Household head is male (%) Age of household head (age) Kinh ethnic group (%) From high school to above (%) Member of political organization (%) 1.3 0 Mean 45.6 23.7 30.7 53.5 47.8 74.9 34.3 Std 0.4986 0.4257 0.4618 0,4993 8.0798 0.4338 0.4753 74.9 0.4338 Min 0 0 26 0 Max 1 1 69 1 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 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 10 4.4 Evaluation the results of GAPs tea production 4.4.1 The advantage results Independent variables Φ (Y=1|X) Observation Pseudo R2 (0.1427) -0.6042 (1.111) 443 85.35 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 Const 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 (0.0140) 443 Note: The value in ( ) is standard deviation of each variables; *, **, and *** present significant level at 10%, 5% & 1% Source: Author calculated 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 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 Marginal effect (dy/dx) Φ (Y=1|X) Marginal effect (dy/dx) 0.2620 (0.2416) -0.0071 (0.0208) -0.4064 (0.2541) 0.3938 (0.2557) -0.0258 (0.0224) 0.8029** (0.2602) -0.01117 (0.0229) 2.8368*** (0.3483) 0.9989*** (0.2823) -0.2037 (0.3561) 0.2830** (0.1298) 0.5656** (0.1499) 0.4393** (0.1519) -0.2234 0.0259 (0.0238) -0.0007 (0.0021) -0.0402 (0.0247) 0.0389 (0.0252) -0.0025 (0.0022) 0.0794** (0.0246) -0.0011 (0.0022) 0.2807*** (0.0255) 0.0988** (0.0263) -0.0201 (0.0351) 0.0280** (0.0125) 0.0559** (0.0142) 0.0435** (0.0141) -0.0221 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 not require or require very little GAPs tea, they 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 Household head is male Age of household head The ethnic of household head The education level of household head Tea production experience of household head Household head is a member of political organization The distance from household to district center The attitude of household head with GAPs Estimated area of tea The household who got the support of government State policies for producing tea GAPs tea benefit awareness of household Market requirement awareness of household Technical requirement awareness 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) -0.0363 -0.0150 -0.02133 (0.0518) (0.0256) (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) The education level of household head 11 12 6.2 Solutions to promote households adoption and continued adoption GAPs for tea production 0.1381* (0.0694) 0.0871** (0.0336) 0.05094** (0.0358) 0.5343*** (0.0895) 0.2509*** (0.0435) 0.2834*** (0.0460) 0.1635* 0.0843** 0.0792* (0.7534) (0.3788) (0.3746) State policies for producing tea 0.0578* (0.0265) 0.0293* (0.0131) 0.02848 (0.0134) GAPs tea benefit awareness of household 0.0795** (0.0285) 0.0421** (0.0141) 0.0373** (0.0144) Market requirement awareness of household 0.0262 (0.0279) 0.0153 (0.0135) 0.01096 (0.0144) Technical requirement awareness of household 0.0100 (0.0235) 0.0032 (0.0096) 0.00682 (0.0139) 0.0004*** (0.0001) 0.0004*** (0.0001) - 0.0785** 0.0785*** The thesis uses secondary and primary information, using descriptive statistical methods, exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis with two models: Probit and Bivariate Probit Some main research results are found: (0.0179) (0.0179) - (i) Tea production according to GAP standards must comply with many strict regulations from the preparation stage such as selecting land, water and seeds to processing, preserving and packaging to market When producing tea according to GAP standards, the responsibility of the producer is enhanced, the product has a clear origin allowing traceability and liability of producer if any problems occurs Meanwhile, traditional tea production is often based on household experience, without a specific standard and it is difficult to identify responsibilities and traceability of product origin The attitude of household head with GAPs The household who got the support of government Estimated area of tea Revenue of GAPs tea Awareness of household about registration fee Observation Pseudo R2 199 54.54 Note: *, **, and *** present significant level at 10%, 5% & 1% Source: Author calculated At mean, the average marginal effects value of the factors belonging to characteristic of households and household head, technology, markets and state policies have been calculated and decomposed into direct and indirect effect Thus, factors that directly, indirectly and positively influence a household's decision to maintain GAPs are found: (i) The more confident the household head with the GAPs process, the higher the ability to maintain GAPs; (ii) The more the household's awareness of the benefits of GAP to tea production, the higher the probability of maintaining GAPs; (iii) The larger the tea production area, the further distance from the center, the more households are able to maintain GAPs for tea production; (iv) Households received support to continue GAPs and the more effective GAPs support policy is, the higher probability of decision to maintain GAPs Factors found to have a direct and positive impact are revenue of GAPs tea and the registration fee GAP certificate extension in proper level GAPs tea revenue increases, registration fee is proper, the ability to maintain GAPs for tea will increase In contrary with the factors above, gender factor has negative to continue adoption GAPs of household, it means the probability to maintain GAPs for tea of male is less than those of woman Therefore, to increase probability of maintaining GAP for tea of household, need to care more with female household head, beside that, GAPs tea market and support for continued adoption GAP also need to be solved CHAPTER RECOMMENDATIONS TO PROMOTE HOUSEHOLD ADOTION AND CONTINUED ADOPTION GAPs FOR PRODUCING TEA 6.1 The basic for proposal 6.1.1 Orientation and planning for tea production development according to GAP standards 6.1.2 Main results Maintaining land fund and strengthening household linkages to increase the land areas for tea production according to GAP standards Developin mechanisms to support households to maintain tea production according to GAP standards Strengthening the dissemination of knowledge and benefits on agricultural production processes according to GAPs and the successful applied production models Focusing on solving the output market for tea products Regularly reviewing, developing and promulgating specific policies and circularing for tea production according to GAP standards, paying attention to policy implementation Examining and supervising the implementation of tea production procedures according to GAPs Linking six parties in tea production according to GAPs CONCLUSION Base on Peasant economic of Ellis (1980), household decision framework (FAO, 1995), Selectively inherit from Ajzen's theory (1975), At the same time, after reviewd previous studies, interviewed with local officials and tea farmers in the NMM region, thesis identifies: (i) Research framework, (ii) Factors affecting to selection decision (adoption/continued adoption) of tea households, (iii) Building survey questionnaire, (iv) Collecting ideas from interviewees (ii) The reality of GAPs tea production shows that: GAPs tea production area is very low and can not meet the plan; GAPs implementation of households still faces many difficulties; households are not interested in applying and maintaining GAPs; The market for GAPs tea products has not been developed, GAPs tea products have not yet competed with regular tea; There are still many inadequacies in management and implementation policies of government making the less believe for many households; The state supports for advertising and branding are ineffective; tea production inspection and supervision and quality control of the final tea products are not strict (iii) The empirical evidences have shown that the characteristic of household and household head, technical requirement, market and policies of government have effect on households decision, these include factors that influence both adoption and continued adoption decisions: The futher the distance, the positive confident attitude towards GAPs, the level of awareness about the benefits of GAPs tea production, the larger the area, the more effective the policy for GAP application, the higher ability of household to adopt and continue adopt GAPs tea production In addition, being a member of political organizations and having higher market requirements for GAPs tea products will be a driving force for tea farmers to apply GAP Next, if GAP tea production revenue is better than regular tea production, households have continued to receive support for GAPs tea production, the percentage of households that maintain GAP will also be higher The marginal effect of variables influencing both household adoption and continued adoption decisions (distance, attitude, benefits, area, policy) has been decomposed into indirect effects and direct effects This result provides evidence that first-stage experience increases the impact of factors on the continued adoption decision for tea production of households (iv) Based on the research results, the thesis proposes group solutions to encourage farmers to choose and maintain GAP standards for their tea production 13 Today, safe tea production in general and tea production according to GAP standards in particular is an indispensable requirement of Vietnam's agriculture The implementation of GAP standards for tea production in the NMM region, the largest tea area in the country, is particularly important Not only preserving the ecological environment for the whole Northern region, ensuring the health of tea producers and consumers, but also contributing to building and improving the brand of Vietnamese tea products in the domestic and international market Therefore, it is necessary to continue persistently implementing and maintaining GAP standards for tea production in the NMM region in particular and Vietnam in general ... 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... 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... 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,