Determinants of rural people to join cooperatives in Northern Ethiopia

Purpose – There are many farmers in rural Ethiopia, who do not join cooperative societies, despite the different technical and financial supports from the government. This study thus aims to investigate the main factors that inspire rural people to join into the cooperatives. Design/methodology/approach – The study collected relevant primary data from 400 sample households using a special household survey designed for this study. The study also reviewed different secondary materials. The collected data were analyzed using the two-sample t -test principle and cooperative participation probit model. Findings – The finding of the binary choice model illustrates that information access, special skill, membership in rural association, frequency of attending a public meeting/workshop, household head education, credit access, training access, number of family members in school, distance to main market, availability of infrastructures, farmland ownership and farmland sizes are the major explanatory variables that have statistically significant ( p -value <0.05) influence on the rural people joining in the cooperative societies in the study areas. Research limitations/implications – This study was based on a cross-sectional survey. As a result, the finding may be subjected to some limitations though the study made all possible efforts to minimize the limitations. Practical implications – Many studies found that cooperatives are a basis for food security. Accordingly, the government can increase a number of cooperative societies in the region by giving more focus to knowledge- and awareness-based instruments like education, information center, rural associations, communication services and roads. These campaigns can attract more people to join the cooperatives and then get the different economic and social advantages from the cooperatives in order to ensure household food security. Originality/value – Some studies found that state, leadership, success history of the cooperative and autonomous status are the most important factors that determine not only the expansion of cooperatives in terms of a number of and types but also for the success of the cooperatives. This study, however, found the importance of information- and knowledge-based mechanisms as a basis to attract more people so that increase in a number of and types of the cooperative societies. Thus, the result of the study is significant for policy makers, social science students, researchers and cooperative societies.