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.
