Building Sustainable Smallholder Cooperatives in Emerging Market Economies: Findings from a Five-Year Project in Kenya

Abstract

A comparative study of two smallholder dairy cooperatives in Kenya examines the question: what factors are conducive to producing sustainable smallholder cooperatives that can gain entry into the vertical value chain in liberalized post-colonial economies? The relative weight of income advantage; selective individual incentives and, social capital on maintaining member patronage are assessed within variable environmental constraints and opportunities facing different cooperatives. The methodology includes case study observation of the cooperatives during a five-year period, as well as sample surveys of members and non-members that include indicators of dairy income; reasons why farmers elect to join or not join the cooperative; and assessments of the importance of different services provided by the cooperative. The findings show how the relative weight of specific incentives for cooperative membership can vary from one environment to another within the same nation. The most important finding is that maintaining sustainable smallholder cooperatives within an increasingly competitive environment depends on the ability of managers to create business strategies that are compatible with the cooperative's environmental constraints but, at the same time, incentivize members' patronage.

Analysis of the Effect of Cooperatives on Increasing Farmers’ Income from the Perspective of Industry Prosperity Based on the PSM Empirical Study in Shennongjia Region

“…Meador believes that the key element of building a sustainable development cooperative is the ability of the cooperative manager. The person in charge should have the ability to pay attention to the overall interests of the members and formulate business strategies in line with the social environment so as to ensure that the cooperative can achieve the dual purpose of adapting to the market and motivating members [23]. Chinese scholars have conducted in-depth research on cooperatives from different angles.…”

A Relational Approach to Studying Collective Action in Dairy Cooperatives Producing Mountain Cheeses in the Alps: The Case of the Primiero Cooperative in the Eastern Italians Alps

“…In Northern European countries, these included evaluation of the EU's LEADER initiative [23]. In southern hemisphere countries, studies were conducted in Brazil on a cheese producers' association in a context of informal production [8], and in Kenya on the sustainability of smallholder dairy cooperatives in a context of market economies [24]. The present article will add to these reflections on the form and substance of the social relations, including the institutional and geographical dimensions, underlying successful collective action for differentiated cheese production in the Alps in western Europe.…”

Placing Rwanda’s agriculture boom: trust, women empowerment and policy impact in maize agricultural cooperatives

“…One goal of cooperative development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa is to provide countervailing power for farmer-members vis-à-vis input suppliers and processorssomething they share with cooperatives in the developed world. Countervailing power eventually provides for vertical integration into the value chain, whereby cooperatives begin to operate processing facilities themselves (Meador et al 2016;O'Brien et al 2013). These emerging cooperatives also share the need to develop and maintain social capital among their members to induce them to adopt new agricultural technologies as well as invest in long-term capitalization projects.…”