Exploring the demand dimension of good agricultural practices (GAP) adoption in the Philippines

The lecture investigates the third dimension (demand dimension) of the GAP Program in the Philippines. It complements the previous study of Banzon, Mojica and Cielo (2012) which examined the first two dimensions (supply and intervention dimensions). The lecture highlights the intermediaries' role in enhancing GAP adoption among farmers and in influencing consumer perception towards GAP-certified products. It also discusses the links among GAP, food safety, and the agri-food chain. The evolving worldwide focus on food safety and quality has been brought about by the development of food markets, new technologies, increased product differentiation and consumer affluence. Consumers and communities are also getting concerned about about safe food that is produced in a way that is environmentally and socially acceptable. These have led to the development of variety of regulatory systems, codes of practice and certification programs in agriculture and the food sector. GAP is used explicitly in some of these standards under the premise that such standards codifies a certain scheme of good practice. Aside from ensuring food safety and quality of produce, GAP aims to capture new market advantages through modification of the supply chain governance; improve natural resources use, workers' health and working conditions and/or create new market opportunities for producers and exporters in developing countries. Therefore, the GAP approach takes into consideration the concerns of producers and workers (supply dimension), consumers and retailers (demand dimension), consumers and retailers (demand, dimension), and institutions and services (intervention dimension), and institutions and services (intervention dimension), that link the supply and demand dimensions. The level of food safety awareness is associated with a country's ease of access to best practice, technology and information, capacity to adopt best practice and technology and information, capacity to adopt best practice and technology and resource constraints. Hence, there is a low level of food safety awareness in developing countries like the Philippines. Filipino consumers generally associate food safety to pesticide-free and links it to organic produce. The majority of consumers are more concerned about a product's physical appearance than food safety. In addition, there is a low level of awareness and appreciation of GAP not only among the producers, but also among the intermediaries and consumers in the country. The examination and discussion of the demand dimension of the GAP Program provide a broader exploration of the third critical component and its role in the success of the GAP Program. There are opportunities for the push strategy towards adherence to food safety standards in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. GAP-certified producers may benefit from a partnership with supermarkets with regards to steering costumers towards healthy food choices. Differentiating the GAP-certified products from the other products is mutually beneficial to the supermarkets and its suppliers. Furthermore, GAP-certified produce may benefit from exposure in health food and retail stores, and community and lifestyle markets which are patronized by middle-and high-income consumers. Lastly, the administrator of the GAP Program may re-examine their control protocol with regards to the use of GAP stickers to make it easier and more affordable for GAP-certified entities to use them in their product packaging. For future inquiry, the concept of this lecture may be extended to a full-blown research to achieve richer information and to allow for more methodological rigor and analytical depth in involving more respondents from the intermediaries and consumers.