Agricultural Cooperatives and Rural Womenas Access to Livelihood Capitals, the Case of Garagodo and Hembecho Cooperatives, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia
The study on Agricultural Cooperatives and Rural Women’s Access to Livelihood Capitals in the case of Garagodo and Hembecho primary agricultural cooperative attempted to analyse the contribution of primary agricultural cooperative in enabling women to access livelihood capitals and build sustainable livelihood which is capable of coping with and recover from vulnerability.By using the sustainable livelihood framework adopted from DFID (1999), the study tried to illustrate how the cooperatives as transforming structure enabled women to build sustainable livelihood by accessing livelihood capitals.The study employed approximating longitudinal survey as research design. It also employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. The quantitative method of data collection employed survey method and the qualitative method of data collection employed in-depth interview, FGD, and observation methods. Using the methods, primary data was collected from sample members of the cooperatives, centrally placed officials from marketing and cooperative development offices and managerial bodies of the cooperative enterprises. Simple random sampling technique was employed so as to select sample elements of the study. The finding of the study has revealed that the cooperatives provided women with various services including supply of agricultural inputs, credit services, marketing of agricultural input and output. Access to these services in turn enabled women to improve their productivity, augment their income, and build livelihood assets which are capable of withstanding risks and shocks.
