Exploring farmers' adoption of VietGAP from systemic perspective: implication for developing agri-food systems

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence farmers' adoption of Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachA case study design was employed. A purposive and snowball sampling strategy was used to select 54 participants for semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data analysis techniques were applied to analyse the data.FindingsThis study found that the social, cultural and institutional dimensions that define the dominant traditional agri-food system determined farmers' adoption of VietGAP and this was expressed in: (1) there was a lack of concern about food safety amongst value chain (VC) actors, particularly consumers and this limited demand for VietGAP-certified vegetables; (2) subjective rather than objective measures were used to assess vegetable quality by actors throughout the domestic vegetable VC and (3) the coordination of this vegetable VC was dominated by informal, trust-based relationships between VC actors rather than through formal written contracts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study employed a case study approach and focussed on a local VC for fresh vegetables. The findings of this research may therefore differ to those concerning other produce.Practical implicationsThis study highlights that farmers' uptake of VietGAP requires changes to the socio-technical regime of the traditional agri-food system.Originality/valueThis research provides a systemic view of the determinants of GAP adoption by farmers and highlights areas that need to be considered when designing policies to enhance the uptake of public GAP programmes and introduce agri-food systems in developing countries.