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Is the Success of Rural Cooperatives Conditioned by the Group Characteristics and Their Value Chain? Evidence from New Farmer Groups in Georgia

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Abstract

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, most of the agricultural land in Georgia was fragmented into small pieces, affecting agricultural production and rural development. However, the cooperative movement is changing this phenomenon, and has attracted the attention of national government and international donors to support the re-establishment of new farmers’ groups. Using cross-sectional data collected from 37 cooperatives, this paper analyses the factors influencing the success of donor supported agricultural cooperatives by ordinal logistic regression model. The results indicate that new groups are rather small but homogeneous. Members agreed that more non-economic, rather than economic, benefits are currently derived from collective action. Determinants of success include the size of the cooperative, the proportion of women in the cooperative, the proportion of nuclear families, active participation in the cooperative and the type of product cultivated. However, the results are conditioned by respective value chain and influenced by the strategies of non-governmental organizations during the establishment of cooperatives.

Résumé

Après la chute de l’Union Soviétique, la plupart des terres agricoles chez la Géorgie fût fragmente dans des petits parcelles, ce qui a nui à la production agricole et au développement rurale. Cependant, les mouvements coopératifs sont en train de changer cet état d’affaires, et ont attiré l’attention du gouvernement nationale et des donneurs internationales qui soutiennent le re-établissement de nouveaux groupes de agriculteurs. Utilisant des données transversales d’auprès 37 coopératives, grâce à un modèle de régression logistique nominale, cet étude analyse les facteurs qui influencent le succès des coopératives soutenues par des donneurs. Les résultats indiquent que les nouveaux groups sont plutôt petits mais homogènes. Les membres de ces groupes sont en accord que les actions collectives qu’ils mènent donnent à présent des bienfaits non-économiques (plutôt que économiques). Les facteurs déterminants de succès comprennent la taille de la coopérative, la proportion de femmes présentes dans la coopérative, la proportion de familles nucléaires, la participation active dans la coopérative, et le type de produit cultivé. Cependant, les résultats sont conditionnés par les respectives chaines de valeur, et influencés par les stratégies des ONGs pendant la période d’établissement des coopératives.

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Notes

  1. Kolkhozes refer to large collective farms.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Grant Agency of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CIGA) (Grant No. 20185001), and Internal Grant Agency (IGA) of the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences (Grant No. 20205008). We are also grateful to the two anonymous referees for their invaluable comments and suggestions that helped to improve the earlier version of the article The authors wish to thank Kochlamazashvili Irakli from ISET in Tbilisi for providing a general overview and contacts with cooperatives established by the consortia of ENPARD NGOs, and Tamila Kepuladze and other researchers from Akaki Tsereteli State University in Kutaisi for assistance with data collection.

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  1. Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, Praha 6, Suchdol, 165 00, Czech Republic

    Samuel Ahado, Levan Chkhvirkia & Jiri Hejkrlik

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Ahado, S., Chkhvirkia, L. & Hejkrlik, J. Is the Success of Rural Cooperatives Conditioned by the Group Characteristics and Their Value Chain? Evidence from New Farmer Groups in Georgia. Eur J Dev Res 34, 677–702 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-021-00382-4

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