Abstract:
From the perspectives of the structure and history of the Tanzanian co-operative movement, the
fact that has to be taken into consideration is existence of abundant community rooted informal
cooperation societies and activities in many regions besides the formal co-operatives that play
vital role at the local and national level.
"Concern for Community", Co-operative Principle adopted Worldwide in 1995 as a statement on
Co-operative Identity emphasizes that co-operatives work for the sustainable development of their
communities through policies approved b
y their members. Thus, co-operatives should be rooted
in communities to respond to their members' and communities’ interests. Tanzania has shown its
commitment to implement this principle in practice by ratifying Co-operative of Tanzania, 2013.
A field survey study conducted among potato farmers that were involved in the Finnish-Tanzanian
project "Seed Potato Development Project (SPDP-Tz)" on "The possibility to form self-initiated
co- operatives by the farmers" in Mbeya rural, Njombe, Wanging'ombe, and Rungwe Regions in the Southern Highlands Zone of Tanzania revealed that the vast majority of the farmers belong to
informal cooperation societies and participate in activities taking place in their villages.
As a follow-up of the SPDP-Tz, a study was conducted to investigate the possibility of shifting
the village rooted informal cooperation societies to formal primary co• operatives. The study that
involved 331 farmers in 6 centres comprising of 27 villages in Wanging'ombe District, Njombe
District and Njombe town Council Njombe, Region, Southern Highlands zone of Tanzania reveals
farmers keen interest and commitment to the idea of shifting the informal cooperation societies to
formal primary co-operatives.
The aim of this paper is to discuss the vital role of the informal cooperation societies and activities
and how as formally farmers' means co-operatives of livelihood would contribute to improve
diversification. Additionally, the community discussion development includes the challenges of
disseminating knowledge to the co-operatives at grassroots level and the possibility of shifting the
operation in accordance with the operation societies to formal co-operatives principle, ‘Concern
for Community’
