Determinants of Members’ Participation in Cooperative Activities

Abstract

The study aims to investigate social, economic, communication and psychological conditions and their influences on members’ participation in cooperative activities. The Chiya Agricultural Cooperative was selected as study area. It was evident that most of the cooperative members possessed a moderate standard of living and had their own land. More than 90 percent of them had received loans and purchased commodities from the cooperative while about 60 percent had deposited their money and sold rice through it. They had a good knowledge of the mechanics of cooperative business but little understanding of cooperative management. They were in frequent contact with the cooperative and considered that there were no obstacles prevention them initiating contact with the cooperative. Most of them were willing to attend group meetings and paid more attention to cooperative promotion. They showed only a medium awareness of persons involved in the cooperative but were satisfied and had a positive attitude towards the cooperative operations. This resulted in the existence of little problem in the cooperative. The combined effect of cooperative promotion, frequency of purchasing cooperative commodies, frequency of contact with the cooperative, deposits, purchasing and length of cooperative membership respectively determined 87.6 percent of the variation in members’ participation. It is strongly suggested that a low level of understanding of cooperative management should be tackled immediately, and in annual meeting representatives should be changed.