Enhancing Rural Development Through Agricultural Cooperatives in a Contemporary World

Abstract

Indisputable, the role that cooperatives, particularly agricultural marketing cooperatives, play in rural development is far stretching. They have been an institution that has spearheaded the attainment of their members' need and interests for ages. Experiences have varied within the Third World just like anywhere else in the world. This could be due to the diversities of the legacies under which the cooperatives emerged and developed, especially in Africa. Since 1925 when some of the early cooperative societies, such as the Kilimanjaro Native Planters Associations, was formed, the cooperative movement has grown to be one of the formidable sectors of Tanzania’s economy. As a rural based economy with agricultural significantly contributing to GDP, any strategy to promote rural development has not, and cannot, succeed without the cooperative movement. Times have changed unveiling new and diverse opportunities and challenges facing the agricultural cooperatives in Kilimanjaro region, just like in the rest of the country and Sub-Saharan Africa, generally. The past and today's cooperatives' experiences are, more than ever, vital for drawing lessons from tomorrow's success. Thus, the contemporary would suggest cooperatives have to inevitably evolve to match the current and eminent challenges. How then are they to change in consonance with the contemporary times to effectively enhance the desired rural development in Tanzania's Kilimanjaro region in what this study attempted to establish.