The impacts of agricultural cooperatives in Tanzanian farmers` livelihoods : The Case of Tobacco Agricultural Cooperative in the Tabora Region

Abstract: Agricultural cooperatives aim to have controlled effort for agricultural products and find market to sell those products at a reasonable price. Farmers’ products are sold at a better price leading to a higher income which improve farmers’ livelihood. The study on the impact of agricultural cooperatives in enhancing farmers’ livelihood in Tanzania was conducted at the Usinde agricultural cooperative society in the Tabora Region. The study adopts the transaction cost theory and uses content data analysis approach to analyse the collected interview and focus group discussion data. The study found that the agricultural cooperative society is responsible of ensuring farmers access to inputs such as fertilizers, seeds and pesticides, cash credits for farm management, extension services and acting as marketing channel for their farmers produce. The services improved the farmers’ income, however they have been encountering a number of limitations like misuse of funding by farmers and limited number of staff which has led to poor performance. This implies that there is more to be done in order to improve farmers’ livelihood.