The Role of Potato Seed Cooperative on the Livelihood of Rural Households in Ethiopia

Abstract

Agricultural Cooperatives help their members to increase their yield and incomes by pooling their resource to support collective service provisions and economic empowerment. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidences of the impact of potato seed producing cooperatives on the livelihoods of rural households in the study area. The study has used cross-sectional data of year 2013. Primary data were collected from the sample of 172 households (82 from Haramaya and 90 from Kersa districts) from both members of cooperative and non-member. A propensity score matching method was used to evaluate the impact of potato seed producing cooperative on household income, expenditure and asset. The evaluation results revealed that member of potato seed production cooperative have got higher income from crop production, total annual income and asset holdings amounting to Birr 29 006, 33 901 and 47 768 respectively. Members also spent Birr 11 728 more than non-member households. This indicates membership to potato seed cooperative is found to have a positive and significant on livelihood indicators. Therefore, the government and other non-government organization like ISSD should provide more support to expand seed producing cooperative to improve the livelihood and food security statues of the rural households.