Investigating the Association between Farmers’ Organizational Participation and Types of Agricultural Product Certifications: Empirical Evidence from a National Farm Households Survey in Taiwan

Mei-Yin Kuan,Jiun-Hao Wang,Szu-Yung Wang

doi:10.3390/su13169429

Abstract

Agricultural product certifications have proliferated due to the growing concerns in many countries over food safety and environmental sustainability. Encouraging farmers to self-organize was regarded as a useful tool to enhance the adoption of agricultural product certifications in Taiwan. However, previous studies solely focused on the association between membership in a production organization and single food certifications. Moreover, little is known of how different types of organizational participation could improve the adoption of agricultural product certifications. This study seeks to fill this knowledge gap by employing multinomial logistic regression model (MNL) to investigate factors affecting farmers’ decisions to participate in agricultural product certification. Special attention is paid to the role of different types of organizational participation in farmers’ choices for agricultural product certification. The study used a nationally representative sample of core farmers in Taiwan, and its results revealed evident differences in farmers’ organization types. For example, the farm operators who participate in agricultural cooperatives (co-ops) tend to use organic labels. In contrast, farm operators who participate in agricultural production and marketing groups (APMGs) tend to adopt the Traceable Agricultural Products (TAP) label. Moreover, age, education level, farming experience, farm labor, farm type, agricultural facilities, and regional location have a significant effect on farmers’ choices for participating in agricultural product certification across different models. The findings suggest that policymakers should consider these differences in the organizational operation of APMGs and co-ops and provide customized measures by promoting different types of agricultural product certifications.

Highlights

Agricultural product certification schemes for farmers have gained considerable attention since the early 1990s [1]
Regarding different effects of organizational participation, the results indicate that farm operators participating in APMGs are more likely to use the Traceable Agriculture Products (TAP) labels than their counterparts in co-ops
The results indicate that livestock farms are less likely to select the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and TAP labels compared with the high-value crop producers

Summary

Introduction

Agricultural product certification schemes for farmers have gained considerable attention since the early 1990s [1]. There is an increasing concern worldwide about food safety, environmental sustainability, and farmers’ rights (e.g., labor conditions, gender equality, and producer welfare) in the agricultural sector [2,3]. Many voluntary certification standards involving farmers have been introduced as a key approach to solving these issues [4]. A series of agricultural product certification projects have been implemented in Taiwan since 1994, including Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in. 1994, Traceable Agriculture Products (TAP) in 2007, and organic agricultural products in. The adoption rate of farmers participating in the certification labeling system is still not as encouraging as expected [6,8].

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