Effect of Members‟ Participation on the Performance of Primary Agricultural Cooperatives in Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Members‟ participation in every cooperative society is very pertinent to its survival and effective performance. The objectives of the study assessed were: the effects of members‟ participation on the performance of primary agricultural cooperative societies in Oromia Region. Ethiopia, To understand the level of members‟ participation in the selected MPPA cooperatives, To observe the level of members satisfaction towards operational activities in the study area, To examine factors affecting the member‟s participation in the selected MPPACs activities. The required Data were collected from 275 randomly selected respondents from purposively selected11 registered and active MPPACS in the study area. The collected data were analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics. The descriptive statistics include frequency; simple percentage and mean, while inferential statistics were include binary logistic regression and multiple regression analysis. Test of hypotheses were affected through ANOVA and correlation testing tools. The result from the study revealed that, members‟ participation in cooperative activities is being influenced by their socioeconomic characteristics. The binary logistic regression analysis result showed that among 14 explanatory variables entered in the model three variables namely (gender, membership duration. and members perception towards service rendered) were found insignificant or not fit the model while the rest 11 variables were statistically significant, x2=109.398, N=275, p<0.0005.Moreover, the findings from correlation analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between members‟ participation and cooperative performance as well asa significant relationship between Members‟ participation and members‟ satisfaction in addition this; Agricultural cooperative and rural development were also highly interrelated. The study was also reviled that the level of members‟ participation in management activities is medium (mean=0.54), in financial activities is low (mean =0.29) and very high in business activities (0.74). The study was also concluded that members‟ participation has a great effect on cooperatives business performance. As such, in order to enhance and strengthen members‟ participation in all of the three stated activities which in turn improve cooperative performance cooperative members‟ have to awarded multi dimensionally. Therefore, it was recommended that the cooperative members should show more commitment in participation in all cooperative activities, also the cooperative should at all-time get members involved in the decision making processes, finally, the cooperative should diversify their investment so as to encourage members to participate by investing and committing more resources with aim of getting some benefits like patronage rebate, dividends and interest. Furthermore, leaders of MPA cooperatives organizations which need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their businesses performances.