Small-Scale Farmers in South Africa: Can Agricultural Cooperatives Facilitate Access to Input and Product Markets?

Authors:
Ortmann, Gerald F.
King, Robert P.
Type: Unpublished
Journal title: Staff Paper P06-4
Year of publication: 2006
Source: AgEcon
Collected from: AGRIS
Subject:
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives
economics
agriculture
Description:Small-scale (communal) farmers in South Africa have limited access to factors of production, credit and information, and markets are often constrained by inadequate property rights and high transaction costs. The objective of this research is to investigate whether agricultural cooperatives - considered by the South African (SA) government as organizations that could help promote community and economic development - can facilitate smallholder access to input and product markets that could enhance their development. This paper initially discusses the principles of cooperation, and briefly describes the history and development of agricultural cooperatives in developed and less-developed countries, with an emphasis on the United States and South Africa. A new Cooperatives Act, based on international principles of cooperation, was promulgated in South Africa in August 2005. The theory of cooperatives, and new institutional economics theory (NIE) (including transaction cost economics, agency theory, and property rights theory) and its applicability to the cooperative organizational form, are also presented, as are the inherent problems of traditional cooperatives, namely free-rider, horizon, portfolio, control, and influence cost problems caused by vaguely defined property rights. An analysis of the future of cooperatives in general, based on a NIE approach, suggests a life cycle for cooperatives (formation, growth, reorganization or exit) as they adapt to a changing economic environment characterized by technological change, industrialization of agriculture, and growing individualism.
 

Related Resources

Support for Farmers' Cooperatives-Experiences of non-EU OECD Countries

Provider: 
Subject: 
policies
agricultural policies
socioeconomic development
economics
agricultural economics
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives
agriculture
agricultural practices
farming systems
cooperative farming

The Evolution of Solutions to the Free Rider Problem in US Agricultural Bargaining Cooperatives

Provider: 
Subject: 
agricultural development
economics
agricultural economics
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives

The Organizational, Financial and Ownership Characteristics of US Agricultural Cooperatives: Survey Results from a New Institutional Economics Perspective

Provider: 
Subject: 
economics
agricultural economics
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives

FACILITATING THE ACHIEVEMENT OF FINANCIAL SELF-SUSTAINABILITY IN RURAL MICROFINANCE FOR EFFECTIVE OUTREACH: DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT ISSUES

Provider: 
Subject: 
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives
agriculture
Collected from: 

The Taxation and Revenue System of State and Local Governments in North Dakota (Revised)

Provider: 
Subject: 
cooperatives
agricultural economics
economics
agriculture
Collected from: 

Report of a preparatory mission to Nigeria on the establishment of n Agricultural Cooperatives Division in the Federal Department of Agriculture.

Provider: 
Subject: 
agribusiness and cooperatives
cooperatives
agriculture
Collected from: 

AGRERI Library

Support for Farmers' Cooperatives-Experiences of non-EU OECD Countries

Provider: 
Subject: 
policies
agricultural policies
socioeconomic development
economics
agricultural economics
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives
agriculture
agricultural practices
farming systems
cooperative farming

The Evolution of Solutions to the Free Rider Problem in US Agricultural Bargaining Cooperatives

Provider: 
Subject: 
agricultural development
economics
agricultural economics
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives

The Organizational, Financial and Ownership Characteristics of US Agricultural Cooperatives: Survey Results from a New Institutional Economics Perspective

Provider: 
Subject: 
economics
agricultural economics
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives

External Library

FACILITATING THE ACHIEVEMENT OF FINANCIAL SELF-SUSTAINABILITY IN RURAL MICROFINANCE FOR EFFECTIVE OUTREACH: DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT ISSUES

Provider: 
Subject: 
cooperatives
agribusiness and cooperatives
agriculture
Collected from: 

The Taxation and Revenue System of State and Local Governments in North Dakota (Revised)

Provider: 
Subject: 
cooperatives
agricultural economics
economics
agriculture
Collected from: 

Report of a preparatory mission to Nigeria on the establishment of n Agricultural Cooperatives Division in the Federal Department of Agriculture.

Provider: 
Subject: 
agribusiness and cooperatives
cooperatives
agriculture
Collected from: