Cooperatives and Agribusiness in Developing Countries

In most developing countries agriculture is the most important economic activity providing food, employment, foreign exchange and raw materials for industries. The experiences prove that individual approaches to development, by and large, failed. The group approach is accepted as the most effective way of transforming and empowering people. The cooperative way is the best way to solve the twin problems of developing countries viz, poverty and unemployment. A participatory efficiency index was developed in the study and was used as a tool to assess the participation efficiency of the respondents. Accordingly, 29.2% of the respondents are classified having low, 57.5% medium and the remaining 13.3% with high participation. The survey result shows that the average age, size of land, and total annual income were found to be 48.71 yrs, 0.9833 ha, and 2763.75Birr respectively. The major problems perceived in the progress of agribusiness by the sample respondents were inadequate knowledge and skill in post harvest techniques, inadequate market infrastructure, and inadequate market information on the tastes and preferences of customers.