The Function of Leadership and Collective Action: a Case Study of the Promotion of Natural Agriculture in Wufeng District, Taichung City, Taiwan

Abstract

Natural agriculture is one of the farming method that practice without chemical materials, and has been verified that it is helpful to the environment. However, ‘environmental public goods’ is difficult to be provided by individual farmer. Such goods may be effectively supplied by means of collective action which is organized by regional residents and stakeholders who independently participate together. During the process of collective action, it would not be success unless local leaders mobilized farmers to actively participate in. This paper reviews the literature of‘leadership’ and ‘collective action’ and adopts qualitative materials and observation where are collected in ‘Wufeng District Farmers Association’ to explore the status of local leaders in central Taiwan. The targets of the establishment of the farmers’ association aims to enhance farmers` knowledge and skills, promote agricultural modernization, improve farmers` livelihoods, and develop the rural economy. Whether these targets could be achieved or not, the leadership is the key to success. In light of the importance of the supply of healthy agri-products, the Director General of the Wufeng District Farmers’ Association mobilized farmers to transform from conventional agriculture to natural agriculture. In order to understand the function of leadership toward collective action during the process of promoting natural agriculture, this study uses qualitativemethod and proposes three important driving factors for the transformation between different farming methods. They are: farmers’ association gives natural farming prospect and plans incentive mechanism; Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute provides cultivation techniques support; and agriculture production and marketing group leads successful mobilization. The research findings are as following: 1. the role of the leader is the necessary ‘manager’ and‘intermediary’ who initiates and maintains the collective action; 2. leader seeks opportunities to address the problems of sustainable development and address the challenges of cooperation and uncertainty; 3. by means of the leader’s advocacy, the farmland of natural agriculture is rapidly enlarging and the farmers’ association transforms their rice as creative agri-products: rice wine. All in all, although the collective action which dominated by leadership seems successfully, leaders still need to cope with the challenges from the external environment and pursue sustainable development.