Trust, collector dependence, and branding readiness among smallholder cardamom farmers in South Nias, Indonesia

This study describes how ready smallholder cardamom farmers in Gomo, South Nias, Indonesia, are to move from selling through a personal intermediary to selling under a recognisable brand, and what they report about their dependence on collectors. The theoretical framework treats a brand as a device that carries trust between a seller and a buyer who have no personal tie, so that producers without a brand depend on the intermediary who can vouch for the product. The method is a descriptive survey of two sources: a baseline survey of 275 farmers on five aspects of product image, scored on a five-point scale, and a needs analysis recorded in a project daily log (n = 50). All five aspects were low (means 1.80 to 2.40; overall mean 2.07), with marketplace use and branding lowest. Respondents listed unstable prices, dependence on collectors, high transport costs, and missing outside market information as the main constraints, and asked for a buyer-seller rating feature. The two samples differ and are not linked statistically. Trust and dependence were examined through reported constraints, not dedicated scales, so the findings are consistent with, but do not test, the view that farmers hold no brand able to carry trust beyond the collector. For practice, support should combine brand identity, packaging, certification knowledge, and digital selling, and respect the farmer-collector tie. The originality lies in a baseline for a hard-to-reach farming population and a relational reading of branding readiness, with two propositions as a conceptual frame for later testing.