Awam R. Karunakaran, Brehanu Borji & Ahmedin Sherefa
Hawassa University, Ethiopia
The main aim of this study is to empirically analyze the major factors influencing members' participation in input and output marketing of agricultural multipurpose co-operatives in the Southern Zone of Tigray Region of Ethiopia. A multi-stage random sampling procedure was adopted as to selection of Woredas, co-operative societies, and member respondents. As such, in the first stage, Tigray Region was purposively selected. In the second stage, from the five Woredas (Districts) of the Southern Zone of Tigray Region, Alamata and Ofla Woredas were selected at random for the study. In the third stage, out of 27 primary multipurpose co-operatives in the selected Woredas, 10 societies were selected based on the volume of business. In the final stage, a total of 208 sample respondents at the rate of 56 from Alamata and 152 from Ofla Woreda by adopting probability proportionate to size sampling. Primary data pertaining to the year 2007/08 was collected from the selected sample respondents by using a structured interview schedule. Of the total respondents, about 70.2% and 29.8% were participants and non-participants of the co-operatives agricultural input and output marketing respectively. Probit econometric model was employed to identify the determinants of participation of co-operative members in the input and output marketing by co-operatives in the two Woreda. Fifteen explanatory variables were included in the model of which ten variables were found to be significant. Of these, six explanatory variables namely own land, shareholding, distance, output price, membership in other co-operatives and seed price were found to be significantly and positively related to the participation of co-operative members in the agricultural input and output marketing by co-operatives.