Leadership, Collective Action in Developing Natural Farming: A Case Study at Wufeng District, Taichung City in Taiwan

Abstract

There is different character in each rural region which has its own set of opportunities and constraints. Due to the constraints, local leaders should mobilize actors together to build an understanding of how appropriately to find and use the resources. Drawing upon the local leadership and collective action literatures and based on evidence, this paper tries to explore the leadership of places through an examination of the experience of a Wufeng District Famers’ Association in Taichung City, Taiwan, whose purposes are safeguarding farmers’ rights and interests, enhancing farmers’ knowledge and skills, boosting the modernization of agriculture, increasing crop yields, improving farmers’ livelihood and developing rural economy. Whether these purposes can be achieved, the leadership of the director-general is the key to the outcome. In view of the importance of the healthy food supply, the director-general of the Wufeng Famers’ Association mobilizes the farmers to transfer from conventional farming to natural farming. In order to understand the role of leadership in collective action of promoting natural farming, this study takes qualitative research method and proposes three important driving forces that have contributed to the transformation of natural farming: the farmers’ association shapes the vision and plans the incentive mechanism, the agricultural experimentation station provides the cultivation techniques, and the successful mobilization of leaders of the production and marketing group. Some of research findings are:1. the role of leaders serves as essential ‘managers’ and ‘intermediaries’ to initiate and sustain collective action, and 2. the leaders seek for opportunities for resolving the problems facing sustainable development and tackling the challenges of collaborative and uncertain issues, 3. through the promoting of the leaders, the farmland area of natural farming is expanding rather quickly and turn the products of natural farming into high quality wine. The collective action seems successful; nevertheless, the leaders are still needed to cope with challenges from external environment. This paper hopes to share the experiences in Taiwan rural organization, deepen the theoretical dialogue, and extend the network for further social practices.

每個農村地區都有不同的特點，各有其機會和制約因素。由於受到限制，地方領導人理應動員參與者，以便共 同了解如何恰如其分地發現和使用資源。本文借鑒地方領導和集體行動文獻，以質性證據為基礎，藉由台灣中部霧峰 區農會的經驗的考察，以探討地方領導人的地位。而農會設立之目的在於增強農民的知識和技能，提高農作物產量， 改善農民生計和發展農村經濟；這些目的能否達成，總幹事的領導力則是成敗的關鍵所在。有鑑於健康農產品供應的 重要性，霧峰農會總幹事動員農民由慣行農業轉作自然農業。為理解領導在推動自然農業中集體行動的作用，本研究 採用質性研究方法，分析促成農法轉型的三個重要驅動因素：農會塑造願景並規劃誘因機制、農試所提供栽培技術、 產銷班領導成功動員。一些研究成果是：1。領導者的角色是啟動和維持集體行動的必要「經理人」與「中介人」;2. 領導者尋求機會解決可持續發展面臨的問題，應對合作和不確定性的挑戰;3.領導者推動自然農業的耕地面積正在迅速 擴大，將自然農業的產品轉化為優質清酒。不過，集體行動似乎成功了，領導人仍然需要應付來自外部環境的挑戰。 本文希望分享台灣農村組織的經驗，深化理論對話，拓展網絡，進而達成社會實踐。