This thesis reports on action research in Indonesia that explores the potential of COCREATE (an empowerment approach based on cocreation) to empower stakeholders within agricultural production and supply chains (APSCs) to pursue a sustainable and inclusive future in Indonesia.
This approach focuses (1) on a common understanding of the challenges with which stakeholders in the chain are faced related to production, market, logistics, finance, and governance, (2) both vertically and horizontally within the chain, and (3) followed by participatory solution design and implementation.
Based on the results, this thesis concludes that: 1) social factors of empowerment and engagement are essential to pursue sustainable APSCs, in addition to environmental, economic and governance factors; 2) COCREATE is an approach to empower APSCs actors (connected horizontally and vertically) in developing countries to engage in pursuing sustainable and workable their APSSs; 3) COCREATE supports farmers and local traders (in the vertical relationships) to improve their own and each other position in the APSCs; 4) COCREATE supports farmer organisation (in the horizontal relationships) to self-organise their governance to maintain sustainable inclusion; 5) Empowering agricultural chain actors in developing countries is a long-term process and requires new approaches within, e.g. extension programmes, local university programmes as well as private business interventions.
Kusnandar Kusnandar
