EFFECTIVENESS OF MARKETING COOPERATIVES TO THE LIVELIHOOD OF FARMERS IN KUMI DISTRICT; A CASE STUDY OF NYERO SUB COUNTY

ABSTRACT

This research was aimed at finding the effectiveness of marketing cooperatives to the livelihood of farmers in Kumi district, a case study of Nyero Sub County. The study was based on three main objectives which were; to find out the importance of marketing cooperatives in Nyero Sub County, to examine the challenges faced by the marketing cooperatives in Nyero Sub County and to identify the ways of improving the performance of marketing cooperatives. The researcher obtained a letter of introduction from the faculty of Science and Technology in Kumi University, which was presented to the office of the Chief Administrative Officer, Kumi district where the researcher was served a letter of introduction to Nyero Sub County Local Government where the researcher’s case study was based. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research designs with a sample of 50 respondents who included the farmers involved in marketing cooperatives, cooperative members and the extension workers. Qualitative data was obtained through questionnaires, interviews and observation while quantitative data was obtained through computation and analysis. The research findings show that the importance of marketing cooperatives include; employment opportunities, source of revenue to the government, improves the standard of living among others. The challenges include poor infrastructural development, poor accountability and transparency among others. Basing on the findings the researcher noted that capacity building, reduction of taxes, improving the infrastructure could be some of the solutions. However, the researcher recommended that the local government should improve on the infrastructural development in regard to feeder roads to ease transport in rural areas, train and employ more extension staff in the cooperative movement and service delivery to the community among others. The researcher suggested that future studies should be conducted on; effects of poor performance of the marketing cooperatives in Teso Sub-region, effects of risks and uncertainties among marketing cooperatives of Teso Sub-region, and impacts of government involvement to the marketing cooperatives in Teso Sub-region.