Questions about baking granola bars. help..?

one of the recipes i have from GOOP newsletter calls for oats, nuts, pure maple syrup and brown rice syrup. first time i used regular pancake syrup (which is cheaper than maple syrup+brown rice) and the granola was fine. to be more healthy, i used agave necter+corn syrup next time but the bars didnt hold up. this time i used pure maple syrup+pancake syrup(as i dont have brown rice syrup) and they are falling apart. my question: is pure maple syrup good enough to hold oats while baking and not fall apart?? is brown rice syrup better than karo syrup to hold shape of granola bars??