Determinants of Women’s Participation in Agricultural Cooperatives Activities: The Case of Sodo Zuria Woreda, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The objectives of the research were to study the extent of women’s participation in agricultural cooperatives and to investigate the factors affecting women’s participation in agricultural cooperatives. Multistage sampling procedure was employed for the realization of the research objectives. In the first stage, the study area was selected purposively for geographic and economic advantage or convenience. In the second stage, three sample agricultural cooperatives out of eight were selected purposively in consideration of their viability. In the third stage a total of 120 sample respondents were selected by simple random sampling technique based on probability proportional to size (PP). Primary data was collected through interview schedule, in-depth interview and Focus Group Discussion. The level of women’s participation in agricultural cooperatives was measured by calculating the score values of the participation index. Accordingly, the level of women’s participation was high in some of the identified activities such as participation in general meeting, election/voting, approving bylaw/rules, and purchasing agricultural inputs whereas it was low in activities like working as committee member and selling the produces. Based on the mean score values women were categorized into low (27.5), medium (53.3), and high (19.2) participation groups. Percentage, mean difference, one way ANOVA, spearman correlation, and chi-square test were used with the ordered logit model for data analysis. Out of 14 hypothesized variables, seven were found to be significantly influencing participation of women in cooperative activities. These variables include number of shareholding, farm land size, possession of farm ox, distance to cooperative service center, members’ perception towards their cooperative and its management, educational level, and access to cooperative training were found to be significantly influencing the participation. Increased effort in integrating different activities focusing on women empowerment by different bodies, monitoring the realization of cooperative values of equity, equality, and proportional benefits to women, continuous education and training to improve their self-esteem, and placing additional attention to gender mainstreaming in cooperative sector are suggested to improve the participation of women in agricultural cooperatives.

Keywords: Agricultural Cooperative, Women, Participation, Ordered logit model, Wolaita