Strategies for resuscitation of agricultural cooperatives

Lorraine Charinda obtained her M.Sc degree in Agricultural Economics in 2015 and her BSc in Agribusiness in 2011. Since then she has worked with different marketing and trade companies in the field of agriculture. She is an author of a journal on sustainable agriculture published in a reputable international journal association.

Cooperatives have significant impact on economic development because they have the incentives such as improving the viability of business activities of their members, benefits of economies of scale and enhancing incomes. Smallholder cooperatives can be instrumental in creating self-employment opportunities, salaried jobs, promoting human welfare and address challenges faced by the smallholder producers. The study reviewed the factors that led to the collapse of cooperatives in order for resuscitated cooperatives to be effective and efficient for survival. The results showed that the performance of the cooperatives was influenced by complexity of market environment and poor policy structures. The New Institutional Economics Approach provided a useful framework as basis of the investigation to analyze performance of smallholder cooperatives. Variables such as institutional make up, governance structure, performance and leadership skills have a significant positive impact on the likelihood of success of the cooperatives. Sustainable strategies like policy interventions are needed such as provision of regulatory framework that would allow competitive market environments.