Do the state and market affect the farmer's sovereignty? Study of organic agriculture in indonesia

Abstract

Many studies reveal organic farming as an environmentally friendly way compared to conventional agriculture. However, there is a lack of social issues discussed, such as farmer sovereignty, which has a significant impact on farmers' sustainability in running their organic business and their social welfare in the long term. This paper aims to analyze whether government policies and market interventions affect the farmers' sovereignty as defined in the Nyéléni declaration. We use organic farmer surveys in 4 provinces in Indonesia, which represent coconut, nutmeg, sorghum, and rice farming. By using the Partial Least Square (PLS), we concluded that government intervention has significantly influenced the condition of farmers' sovereignty but not for market intervention. This result indicates that organic agriculture grows naturally based on nature and community. The implication is the government needs to provide capacity building for organic communities rather than by subsidizing organic fertilizers, organic seeds, and machinery as in conventional agriculture and needs to legitimate organic label guarantees from the farmer's community.