The role of rural producer organizations in enhancing market participation of smallholder farmers in Uganda: enabling and disabling factors.

The study investigates the factors influencing the effectiveness of second-tier rural producer (RPOs) in linking their members to output markets in Uganda. The percentage of farmers sold some of their produce through the RPO was used as a proxy for effectiveness. Ordinary least (OLS) regression analysis indicated that RPO effectiveness was positively related to the size of RPO and democratic leadership. On the other hand, the proportion of RPO leaders with leadership , enforcement of internal control practices, bulking distance and size of executive committee a significant negative effect on the effectiveness of such organizations. It was concluded that the effectiveness of RPOs required the (i) use of numerous sub-committee instead of many -member meetings and smaller executive committees; (ii) dedication, respect and commitment by of RPOs when imparting skills learnt in order to boost members’ morale; (iii) devising reward for leaders or putting in place stringent rules, such as leadership codes, to guide leader so as to prevent conflict of interest and possible elite capture; and (iv) policies guiding and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) lending conditions be reviewed to match rural producers’ status and seasonality of enterprises.