Comparing corporate sustainability programmes, social entrepreneurship, and cooperatives in shaping farmers’ well-being

The governance of sustainability in agri-food value chains has evolved beyond conventionalcertification strategies. Corporate sustainability programs, social enterprises, and cooperatives arekey complementary or alternative strategies. However, their relative contributions to farmers’ well-being remain unclear. Therefore, we conducted a household survey of 634 cocoa and coffee farmersdistributed across three production hotspots in the Peruvian Amazon. We use the Personal Well-beingIndex to compare well-being among and between farmers involved in the various strategies. Resultsshow that farmers engaged in any strategy of sustainability governance report higher well-being thanindependent farmers. However, only social enterprise strategies remained a significant contributor tooverall farmers’ well-being after controlling for certification, context, household, and demographicvariables. Our findings challenge traditional productivity centered approaches and emphasize theimportance of incorporating localized, socially tailored strategies to enhance the well-being of farmerswithin agri-food value chains.