Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) and participation

Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are a new concept which shall ensure that requirements for the quality of organically produced food are met. PGS are used for local markets and emphasize active participation of a broad base of local actors engaged throughout the organic value chain. Promoters of PGS assume that this type of guarantee assurance is cheaper, less bureaucratic or more capable of promoting rural development. PGS are framed by their promoters as more effective and efficient alternative to product certification carried out by accredited, independent organic certification bodies, which is currently established in law as guarantee assurance mechanism for organic products. Research on PGS has just started and many phenomena linked to and paramount for PGS are not yet studied. This project will examine how PGS-participation is perceived by PGS-members, why they participate or not participate and which benefits and costs drawn from their participation PGS-members perceive. In addition, PGS-participation will be described and analyzed from a scientific point of view and the effect of participation or non-participation in the PGS on the claimed benefits of PGS (e.g. increased trust in products) will be assessed. Framing participation in PGS in a broader context of activities which are not related to the PGS but may compete with PGS-activities for PGS-members time resources and within the broader political and institutional context and structural forces in place will allow us to identify factors hindering and facilitating actor participation in the PGS. For this purpose, qualitative interviews, surveys, participant and non-participant observation and focus groups will be used as data collection methods and applied in each two PGS initiatives in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador. Deliverables of the project will be relevant as PGS have hardly been addressed in scientific literature so far. Although actor participation is a paramount element of PGS, it has not yet been studied on a broad basis. Project outcomes shall deepen our understanding of actor participation in PGS. The topic is of high relevance beyond the context of PGS as well, as participation is an important concept in a wide array of social processes. Consequently, by studying PGS we expect further insights for rural development beyond certification in organics.

This project examined participation of local stakeholders in Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), a local quality assurance mechanism for organically produced food. PGS has gained strong momentum around the world, yet only few researchers have provided empirical data exploring the claimed benefits associated to them. The project aimed to provide a profound understanding of PGS stakeholder (e.g. producers, consumers) participation, and present evidence regarding e.g. who participates, how participation occurs, what kind of participation takes place in PGS initiatives. The project furthermore aimed to explore PGS markets, the regulatory context and certification costs of PGS throughout selected Latin American countries. Within the project, a framework for scientifically describing and assessing stakeholder participation in PGS was developed and applied using a mix method approach for data collection. The project results provide a novel and detailed qualitative and quantitative insight into stakeholder participation in PGS. In Chile, for example, PGS producer participation was unequally distributed and inhibited by stakeholders' time availability and own expertise - perceived by the consumers as being insufficient to uphold tasks. PGS consumers in Bolivia, Chile and Mexico, through steady and frequent market attendance, assumed an important role for PGS initiatives, yet hardly participated actively in the PGS (e.g. in farm visits, workshops, events). Overall, learning processes and exchange emerged as important potential and perceived benefits of PGS participation for both consumers and producers. These results provide an important basis for discussing the benefits and challenges proclaimed by PGS advocates. The project results moreover show that the national regulatory frameworks have important implications for the complexity, time- and resource intensity of PGS initiatives, and for the total PGS certification costs. These results highlight the challenges PGS initiatives face when having to uphold state mandated formal procedures. Research in Costa Rica for the first time determined PGS certification costs, including both, explicit (monetary) costs, and implicit costs (time). This is particularly relevant, because PGS are often promoted as a cheap option for obtaining organic certification, yet are fundamentally based on non-remunerated participation for achieving these cost reductions. These findings underlined the fundamental importance of non-remunerated time dedicated by PGS farmers for reducing explicit certification costs and upholding the PGS. Overall, the project outcomes contribute to a better understanding of Latin American PGS stakeholders' participation, certification costs, PGS markets and the regulatory frameworks governing PGS. The project results are of relevance to scholars and practitioners studying, implementing and/or promoting participatory processes, as well as policy makers, NGOs or development agencies engaged in development and execution of participatory projects.