Assessment of the Role of Agricultural Cooperatives in Achieving Socio-Economic Development in Sululta Woreda, Oromia Special Zone

Abstract

The study was conducted with the main objective of assessing role of Agricultural Cooperatives in achieving socio-economic development in Sululta woreda, Oromia Special Zone. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used to obtain the desired qualitative and quantitative data and semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the necessary information. Quantitative data would analyzed by using simple descriptive statistics like percentage, frequency and mean and qualitatively .data was analyzed through concepts of explanation and elaboration of description of ideas and opinions of respondents. The result of this study shows only 14(15.2%) of the sampled respondents from the two kebeles were participant of agricultural cooperatives. The cooperative members obtained different types of services from agricultural cooperatives including agricultural input supply (92.31%).  Regarding with socio-economic challenges of agricultural cooperatives, lack of information is the main factor that affects participation of the respondents in agricultural cooperatives that accounts 85.87%.  Poor infrastructure is another factor that hinders the participation of non-participants in cooperatives as well as discourage member of cooperatives. In conclusion, agricultural cooperatives have  a great contribution for the farming community in the study area through supplying agricultural inputs i.e. improved seeds, fertilizers, and agro-chemicals with balanced price. Despite these facts, the number of participants of agricultural cooperative is small (15%).Lack of information is the main constraint that affects the participation of the respondents as mentioned by majority of study participants and key informants. Therefore, education and training program as a strategy should be designed to increase awareness about cooperatives.

Keywords: cooperative, Socio-economic development, Agricultural cooperative