Agricultural Productivity, Co-Operatives and Organisational Innovations: A Case of Selected Coffee Production Communities in Mbinga District Tanzania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61538/huria.v22i0.64Abstract
 Agriculture is the backbone of the majority of developing countries accounting between 30 and 60 percent of their Gross Domestic Product. Studies indicate that presence of cooperative societies, institutional support and other organisational linkages can enhance productivity and increase farmers’ income by bringing financial services closer. The study objectives aimed at establishing coffee production level in the last farming season; examining the contribution of cooperative societies in the production of coffee; and determine organisation innovations existing in coffee production. Methodologically, the study made use of cross section research design and data were collected from five villages namely Utiri, Mtama, Mahumba, Mahande and Iringa located in Mbinga District. Key respondents were the coffee smallholder farmers located in the aforementioned villages who were also members of Kimuli Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Society (AMCOS) and Muungano Savings and Credit Co-operative Society - a SACCOS. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select five villages and smallholder farmers were obtained through systematic random sampling. Results indicate that smallholder farmers own small land sizes which limit their productivity where the average land size per household is 7 acres and average yield was 1145.14kg per household. The cooperatives had a great contribution to the production of coffee as they enabled members (smallholder farmers) to get inputs at reasonable prices, provide extension services, provide credits at reasonable interest rates, provide coffee processing as well as finding markets on behalf of farmers at regional, national and international levels. Also, coffee farmers were able to innovate a new structure for harmonising the institutional linkages between their cooperative societies (AMCOS and SACCOS) which is called “integrated co-operative modelâ€. The model proves to be one among the key organizational tools for revamping and sustaining agricultural productivity while improving rural smallholder farmer’s livelihoods.   ÂReferences
Anriquez, G. & Stamoulis, K. (2007). Rural Development and Poverty Reduction: Is Agriculture Still the Key? ESA Working Paper No. 07-02. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Retrieved October 19, 2012: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ah885e /ah885e.pdf
Bibby, A. (2006). Standing on their own two feet: cooperative reform in Tanzania. International Labour Organization. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
Boer, Harry & Willem E. During (2001). Innovation, what innovation? A comparison between product, process and organisational innovation. International Journal of Technology Management. 22, 1-3: pp. 83 – 107.
Cilliers, P. (2005). Knowing complex systems. In Managing organizational complexity. Philosophy, theory and application. Kurt A. Richardson, editor. Information Age Publishing. pp.7-19
Daniel, W. (2009). Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences. John Wiley & Sons Inc, New Jersey. 783pp.
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) (2012). Agricultural cooperatives: Key to feeding the world. Food and Agricultural Organization. Retrieved October 19, 2012: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/ templates/getinvolved/images/WFD2012_leaflet_en_low.pdf
Fulton, M. & Kennett, J. (1999). New Generation Co-operative Development: The Economic Environment in North Dakota and Minnesota and Lessons for Saskatchewan. Report prepared for Saskatchewan Economic and Co-operative Development. Retrieved November 16, 2012: http://usaskstudies.coop/pdf-files/NGCDevelopment.pdf.
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). (2001). Rural
Poverty Report 2000/2001 Fact Sheet - The Rural Poor. International Fund for Agricultural Development. Retrieved October 19, 2012:http://www.ifad.org/media/pack/rpr/2.htm.
Kimario, A. (1992) Marketing Cooperatives in Tanzania: Problems and Prospects. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press.
Lam, A. (2004). Organisational innovation Brunel Research in Enterprise, Innovation, Sustainability, and Ethics. Brunel University. Working paper 1. McMillan.
Maghimbi, S. (1992). The Abolition of Peasant Cooperatives and the Crisis in the Rural Economy in Tanzania, in Forster, Peter G. and Sam Maghimbi (Eds) The Tanzanian Peasantry: Economy in Crisis. Aldershot: Avebury.
Novkovic, S. & Holm, W. (2011). Co-operative networks as a source of organizational innovation Sonja Novkovic and Wendy Holm for presentation at the ICA Global Research Conference Mikkeli, Finland August 25-27, 2011, 1–26.
Sizya, J. (2001). The role co-operatives play in poverty reduction in Tanzania. Paper Presented at the United Nations in observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October 2001.
