Influence of cooperatives on smallholder maize sector development: the case of Nakalama sub-county, Iganga district.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of agriculture cooperatives to the development of the maize sector, three research questions were answered and these were; What are the effects of agricultural cooperatives on maize production? What are the effects of agricultural cooperatives on maize market access? And the effects of belonging to a cooperative on maize farmer's household income. From the previous research carried out by other researchers, they found out that agriculture cooperatives are vital in the development of the agriculture sector; this research was carried out to get more information about the influence of agriculture cooperatives to the development of the maize sector. A descriptive research design and a mixed research approach were used in this study, the sample size of 73 respondents was determined using Cochran's formula, the respondents were members of KFCS and data collection was done through use of questionnaires and interviewing of key informants and data analysis was done using a regression and descriptive analysis in SPSS. The results of data analysis showed that the agriculture cooperative has helped to improve on the development of the maize sector in terms of yield access to market and but it has not played a big role in increasing the income of the members and the use of credit to buy members products affects their consuming behavior. It is therefore recommended that the cooperative board members should adopt the payment of its members immediately after sale and the government should sensitize non-members about the benefits of joining the cooperatives. Some areas that need further study are; the factors influencing the performance of agriculture cooperatives and the influence of terms payments to the wellbeing of cooperative members.