The Operational Elements of the Vegetable Cooperatives: The Case of Agricultural Cooperative Societies in King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality, Eastern Cape Province

Abstract

Cooperatives are typically established to help create jobs and improve their members' economic and social conditions, among various  other roles. Farmers’ cooperative societies play a vital role in enhancing the livelihood of resource-poor farmers. The government has initiated various support programmes to assist agricultural cooperative societies to remain viable; however, many cooperatives continue  to flounder while some have collapsed. This study identifies operational components like members' roles, cooperative constitutions and  decisionmaking processes, record-keeping, education and training of members, farm and financial management and level of extension  service involvement as critical roles in sustaining agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, this study's objective was to assess the key  operational components of vegetable cooperative societies and the level of extension support provided to the cooperatives in the study  area. Ten functional vegetable cooperatives in the municipality were purposively selected for the study. At the same time, data for the  survey was obtained from the board of directors and members of the cooperatives. Data was collected using semistructured  questionnaires consisting of closed and open-ended questions. The presentation of results was done using simple descriptive statistical  tools. The study outcome shows that about 50% of the cooperatives noted that members were largely involved in the daily running of the cooperatives, governance, and decision-making processes. However, many cooperatives are constrained by the lack of training of its  members on conflict resolutions (90%), with about 30% and 40% not receiving training on record keeping and financial management, respectively. The role of extension services towards the sustainability of the cooperatives is crucial. Most (80%) of the cooperatives  indicated some level of interaction between the cooperatives and extension personnel, albeit the need to improve the frequency of  extension visits, training, and follow-up appointments. The result of this study implies that cooperatives in the region need to improve in  key operational areas. Extension personnel need to be more available to support cooperative activities effectively.