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.
