Enhancing food security through agricultural cooperatives: Discourses of climate change and smallholder farmers in Africa.

Abstract

The persistent food insecurity faced by smallholder farmers in Sub- Saharan Africa is driven by limited access to productive resources, weak institutional support, and increasing exposure to climate-related shocks. While agricultural cooperatives are promoted to enhance food access and resilience, systematically synthesized evidence on their role remains limited, especially in climate-sensitive contexts. This review addresses that gap by examining how agricultural cooperatives influence food security outcomes for smallholder farmers across Africa. The study employed a systematic review design, guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. A structured search was conducted across six databases - Emerald Insight, Taylor & Francis Online, Google Scholar, Africa Journals Online (AJOL), ScienceDirect, and CAB Direct, covering literature from 2000 to 2024. From 3,241 initial results, 154 titles were identified as relevant, and 35 studies were retained after abstract screening. Full-text screening yielded seven peer-reviewed studies meeting inclusion criteria, selected based on their focus on cooperative membership, food security outcomes, and relevance to smallholders in climate-vulnerable settings. Findings from studies in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Ghana reveal that cooperative membership is associated with improved food availability, dietary diversity, and reduced food insecurity. These outcomes were linked to enhanced access to inputs, credit, training, markets, and extension services. Some studies also reported contributions to climate resilience, including improved irrigation, income diversification, and communitybased environmental management. The extracted data were synthesized thematically to identify key patterns and contextual variation. This review consolidates fragmented evidence on the role of cooperatives in food-insecure and climatesensitive farming systems. It highlights the conditions under which cooperatives are most effective and offers practical insights for policymakers and development practitioners on how to strengthen their impact through improved governance, better market integration, and the incorporation of climate adaptation strategies into cooperative models.