Government Support Interventions and Autonomy of Agricultural Cooperatives in Ethiopia: the Case of Selected Regions
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2014-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study on Government Support Interventions and Autonomy of Agricultural Cooperatives
tried to analyze the overall approach and focus areas of government support to agricultural
cooperatives in enhancing their capacity and its implications on their autonomy. In addition,
the importance, strength, and weakness of government support to agricultural cooperatives
have also been explored in this thesis.
The study used qualitative and quantitative approach of data collection and analysis by means
of structured questionnaires to sample members and employees of primary cooperatives and
union as the basic data source and structured interviews with experts in the cooperative sector.
The study shows that Ethiopian cooperative support bodies at different levels of government
and administration put significant effort to support agricultural cooperative development. The
supports to agricultural cooperatives in different tier levels vary from regulating the
cooperative sector with just laws to direct human resource and material support. These
supports to agricultural cooperatives are mostly in the form of trainings, cooperative services
and relatively little material support through government support bodies in federal, regional,
zone and lower levels.
The findings of the study also indicate that the government support to agricultural cooperatives
has played enormous role in creating awareness about cooperatives and their advantages
among farmers, increasing the number and role of cooperatives in the agriculture sector and
ensuring sustainable growth of cooperatives. While engaging to support and provide services
to agricultural cooperatives that are formally declared autonomous by proclamation,
government support bodies intervenes in their internal matters. These interventions happen
from the formation stage of new cooperatives to the day-to-day activities of matured ones.
These interferences are not necessarily uniform, but sufficiently strong enough to pose
challenges to cooperative business operation performance and growth across the studied
regions
Description
Keywords
Selected regions