Abstract:
The main objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of cooperatives under wodera multi-purpose Cooperatives union with respect to input-output marketing service, credit services, employment creation and to identify constraints that face cooperatives not to achieve its objectives. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to conduct the study. For this purpose four cooperative societies from the member of wodera Farmers’ Multipurpose Cooperative Union were selected purposively. From the four cooperative societies, 10% of their members, a total of 225 individuals were selected using simple random sampling technique. Sample member farmers have responded to a questionnaire with a focus on the themes mentioned above. From the discussions and analysis, it had been found out that, farmers were engaged in purchasing agricultural input from their cooperative, but cooperatives usually failed to meet the demand for inputs by members both in terms of quality and quantity. The main types of agricultural inputs provided through cooperatives to member farmers were soil fertilizers and selected seeds; the majority of sample households buy items from cooperatives assuming buying items from cooperatives secure such advantages as relatively cheaper price, better quality, and correct measurement of items over buying items private businesses or shops, farmers however were not getting all the agricultural inputs from their cooperative society on the right time and at the required quantity; cooperatives are not at encouraging level in their performance of input output marketing and households could not guarantee improvement in agricultural production for they were not getting all the agricultural inputs from cooperatives. Moreover, product market service of cooperatives was not encouraging because their demand for products to sale was not met through purchasing from members only, the share of total output supplied to cooperative market by members was low(1/4); the most important motivating factor that encourages a few farmers to sale their agricultural output to cooperatives was found to be trust and dividend expectation. Cooperatives also face a wide array of constraints both internally and externally ranging from maladministration to market uncertainties; cooperatives has been found hardly successful in creating direct and indirect job opportunity to members; the day to-day activities of cooperatives was run by board of directors, volunteers, government body, Finally, recommendations were made in order to enhance the performance of cooperatives and for further research to look deep in to policy options to improve performance of cooperatives.
