Stakeholders’ trustability toward co-creating and co-investment in safe agriculture

Abstract

The impact of the New Land and Building Tax Law will increase land holding costs, particularly for vacant land. Landowners who have insufficient cash may not be able to cope with a new tax burden. This study explored the possibility of bringing unutilized land plots into production towards co-creation and co-investment in safe vegetable farming by emphasizing minimization of the external derived inputs such as pesticides or synthetic chemical fertilizers to create more self-reliant sources of vegetables for consumers. The objectives of this study were: 1) to comprehend landowners’, consumers’, and investors’ perceptions as the core stakeholders toward sustainable agriculture investment, and to identify the limitations and expectations of each group by using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires of 50 landowners, 100 consumers, and 50 investors. The findings indicated that lack of trust was one of the most crucial aspects; 2) to design a conceptual model, called CO-VEGGIES, based on some key applications of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), i.e. the network of the strong stakeholder’s relationship, shared values, open-information, and direct participation to build trust; 3) to test the conceptual model to identify key elements in the stakeholders’ trustworthiness by using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires of 120 samples including 30 landowners, 60 consumers, and 30 investors. The findings suggested that stakeholders’ direct participation in the conceptual CO-VEGGIES model resulted in greater empowerment and the positive development of trust and quality assurance.