Cooperative success for Cambodia's small‐scale rice farmers

In 2013, Cambodia introduced new cooperative legislation and began providing policy and material support for the establishment of ‘modern’ cooperatives. However, only 7% of the country's small‐scale farmers were members of registered agricultural marketing cooperatives (ACs) in 2020. We need to understand whether this low uptake by farmers is related to insignificant financial benefits or other barriers to AC membership. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of AC membership on rice yield and gross margin using data from Cambodia and identifies key barriers to AC membership. A national sample of 9855 rice farmers was selected for impact analysis using propensity score matching, two‐stage least squares with instrumental variables (2SLS(IV)) and endogenous switching regression. Results reveal that AC membership increased rice yield by 1.34 t/ha and gross margin by 47.7 thousand riel per tonne. The combined effect of better yields and prices associated with membership adds approximately $293 to a non‐member's annual gross margin. This represents meaningful financial gain to small‐scale rice farmers and lends support to policy interventions that promote Cambodia's cooperative movement. The study concludes that farmer uptake of agricultural marketing cooperatives remains low owing to a lack of awareness about the benefits of participation.