Abstract:
Ethiopia, whose economy is based on agriculture, multipurpose agricultural cooperatives play significant role by providing farm inputs, availing market for farm outputs and rendering services for the societies. To improve this roles this study was conducted to assess factors affecting members’ participation of primary multipurpose agricultural cooperatives in Lemo Woreda, South Ethiopia. A two stage sampling technique was used. In the first stage purposive sampling was conducted to select five cooperatives out of 11 cooperatives. In second stage, random sampling technique was employed to obtain a sample size of 150 who were drawn from five agricultural multipurpose cooperatives. Both quantitative and qualitative data types were used. Quantitative data were collected through structured questionnaire and qualitative data were collected by focus group discussions and key informants interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and OLS regression model was used to identify factors affecting level of participation of the agricultural cooperative members. The qualitative data were analyzed by using descriptive narration through concurrent triangulation strategies. For data processing and analysis both SPSS 20 and STATA 14 were used. The members’ level of participation was measured by taking eleven indicators. The overall mean sample score of mean participation was 0.48, members’ medium level of participation. To know the effect of independent variables on dependent variable a total of 14 explanatory variables were considered in the OLS model. The result reveals that: farm size, shareholding, credit service, position in the cooperatives, and members’ perception on services provision of the cooperatives were positively and significantly related with level of participation at P<0.01 significance level. Similarly, education level at 1% significance level and patronage refund at 5% significance level affected the level of members’ participation positively. But, alternative market access affected members’ participation negatively at 10% significance level. This indicates that the better the education level and position, the more tendency to participate in cooperatives. Similarly, the better perception, credit service, and market opportunity, the more motivation to participate in the cooperatives. Moreover, the higher shareholding and the better patron, also the better tendency to participate in cooperatives. Therefore, continuous training and delivery of services would improve the participation of the members. Thus, this should be considered by cooperative leaders, government and nongovernmental organization to improve the cooperative members’ participation level.
