The renewed case for farmers' cooperatives: Diagnostics and implications from Ghana

This study presents a stylized but insightful diagnostic of the problems limiting collective action in Ghanaian farmer-based organizations (FBOs). In our analysis, we use a structure-conduct-performance framework, econometrics, and new primary data for 500 FBOs collected through surveys and games. We find that most Ghanaian FBOs are inactive, failing to mobilize their members into any sort of collective action. To understand why this is so, we postulate that in rural Ghana, four typologies can be used to classify FBOs and to distinguish them on the basis of their membership structure and rules of conduct. We then show that FBOs fail to mobilize collective action whenever their structure and conduct are not aligned. In particular, misalignment leads mainly to problems of access to external credit and to a lesser extent to problems of internal cohesion. To maximize collective action, this study recommends the diversification of policy through recognizing the four different types of FBOs, each facing particular and to some extent opposing problems.Collective action, Cooperatives, econometrics, games,

Evidence from supermarkets, industries and consumers in Ethiopia

PRIFPRI3; ISIKCI

Implications for management and governance in Ethiopia

Non-PRIFPRI3DSG

Cooperation for competition Linking Ethiopian farmers to markets

PRIFPRI4DSG

Does organisational form matter?

PRIFPRI3DSG

A case study from the dairy belt of Addis Ababa

PRIFPRI3; ISI; CRP2DSGD; PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM

Fair trade’s theory of change: An evaluation based on the cooperative life cycle framework and mixed methods

PRIFPRI3; ISI; CRP2PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM

Impacts of Collective Action on Smallholders' Commercialisation: Evidence from Dairy in Ethiopia

The impacts of collective action on smallholders' commercialisation are the subject of a heated global debate. This study aims at bringing some empirical evidence into this debate. To do so we collected a unique set of bio-economic data, in 2003 and 2006, comprising information from 50 cooperative farmers and 50 individual farmers located within the same milk-shed in proximity of Addis Ababa. This dataset allowed comparing commercial performance of individual and cooperative dairy farmers, across 2003 and 2006. The empirical findings obtained with an adapted difference in difference analysis suggest that dairy cooperative farmers outperform the otherwise similar individual producers in terms of quantitative performance (market access, herd size and productivity), but also that cooperatives have an overall negative impact on milk quality (fat and protein content) and safety (bacteria contamination) at the farm gate. Finally, between 2003 and 2006, cooperatives showed horizontal expansion (increased number of cooperative members and herds size), but coop-members appeared incapable to either upgrade or intensify their farming systems