Selection of buyers among pepper smallholder farmers in Tebedu, Serian, Sarawak / Nazratul Shazwani Paza@Faizal

Sarawak is the highest producer of pepper in Malaysia which accounted for 98% of Malaysia pepper production. While the remaining 2% of the production is produced in Johor and Sabah. In Sarawak, pepper is cultivated by smallholder farmers. This industry has provided stable income for about 67,000 of families in rural areas of Sarawak. Pepper industry also has contributes high positive return to the Malaysia economy. Though the study area has great potential of pepper production, the farmers in Tebedu faced the marketing problem in selection of pepper buyers. Marketing plays an important role in the pepper production where the main substance is the selection of buyers. Different selection of buyers offers different price to the pepper farmers. In order to increase the profits, pepper farmers should know which buyers offer the best price. Farmers' decision on the selection of buyers will directly affect every other marketing decision. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide the information about the current buyers of pepper available in Tebedu, Serian, Sarawak which can help the pepper smallholder farmers to market their product wisely. This study also aims to investigate the relationship between farmers' socio-demographic profiles, farm profile, and their preference in selection of buyers. In particular, this study was conducted in order to examine the factors that highly influenced the growers' preference towards the selection of pepper buyers. The study was conducted in the east region of Malaysia, the state of Sarawak among 83 smallholder farmers in Tebedu, Serian. Two stage sampling procedure was used to select 83 smallholder farmers so that everyone in the target population has an equal chance of inclusion (Kothari, 2013). In the first stage nine (9) locations (Kpg. Pichin, Kpg. Kakeng, Kpg. Daha Kisau, Kpg. Daha Seroban, Kpg. Entubuh, Kpg. Krusen Siu, Kpg. Sebintin, Kpg. Gega Bunan and Kpg. Sejijag Mawang) were selected by purposive sampling technique. In the second stage, a total of 83 pepper farmers were selected randomly from the selected villages by using random sampling technique. Face-to-face interview was conducted using the structured questionnaire in order to collect primary data from selected smallholder farmers. The data was analysed using both descriptive analysis, chi-square analysis and factor analysis. SPSS statistics version 21 for windows was used for the data processing and analysis. The result of this study showed that smallholder farmers in Tebedu sold their produce to four main buyers, which are Malaysian Pepper Board, farm level collectors, private sector and area farmers' organisation. Using chi-square analysis, the results indicate that race, level of education and year of operation have a significant relationship with preferences toward selection of buyers. Meanwhile, service, price, quality and quantity as well as time are the factors that influenced the farmers' preference towards the selection of buyers.