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Allies or Rivals? An Explorative Investigation of the Relationship between Primary Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies and Co-operative Unions in Tanzania

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dc.contributor.author Kweka, Godfrey J.
dc.contributor.author Towo, Nathaniel N.
dc.contributor.author Aikaruwa, Deogratius
dc.date.accessioned 2024-08-09T10:14:10Z
dc.date.available 2024-08-09T10:14:10Z
dc.date.issued 2024
dc.identifier.citation Kweka, G.J, Towo, N., and Aikaruwa D. (2024). Allies or Rivals? An Explorative Investigation of the Relationship between Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Primaries and Unions in Tanzania. Journal of Co-operative and Business Studies, 8(1), 57-72 en_US
dc.identifier.issn 2714-2043
dc.identifier.issn 0856-9037
dc.identifier.uri http://repository.mocu.ac.tz/xmlui/handle/123456789/1318
dc.description The current issue and full-text archive of this journal is available at journals.mocu.ac.tz en_US
dc.description.abstract Agricultural co-operatives had once played a key role in transforming the livelihoods of their farmer members in Tanzania. The co-operatives were vibrant both at primary and union levels. Primaries manifested high level of commitment and accountability on unions operations. However, the commitment and accountability have over time blurred leading to the separate interests and operations. This paper explores how agricultural primary co-operatives manage accountability from co-operative unions and the challenges thereto. Whether there is still a mutual relationship between the two is a question of exploration. The paper utilises data collected through focus group discussions and key informative interviews. Purposive sampling was used to choose seventy-five board members from fifteen primary coffee co-operative societies based on their active participation in transacting products and services with three co-operative unions in Kilimanjaro and Kagera, Tanzania. Thematic content analysis was used to derive the results. The findings show that the level of primaries accountability to union is contemporarily low. This is due to insufficient capacity of primary co-operative representatives, losses from unions' business investment and overhang debts, leadership inexperience, information asymmetry among co-operatives actors' and rent-seeking behaviour. These constraints are found to reducing the primary co-operatives' discretionary power of holding co-operative unions accountable in Tanzania. The recommendations are twofold: First, the primary co-operative societies should prioritise the development of a strong, high-quality and transparent co-operative institutions that allows effective member participation and decision-making. Second, the findings accentuate the need for a deliberate integration of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) with co-operatives architectures while emphasising the adherence to the co-operative principles by all co-operative actors. en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Journal of Co-operative and Business Studies (JCBS) en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries Vol. 8;No. 1
dc.subject Primary co-operatives en_US
dc.subject AMCOS en_US
dc.subject Co-operative unions en_US
dc.subject Accountability en_US
dc.subject Integrated ICT solutions en_US
dc.title Allies or Rivals? An Explorative Investigation of the Relationship between Primary Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies and Co-operative Unions in Tanzania en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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