What Determines Women's Participation in Collective Action? Evidence from a Western Ugandan Coffee Cooperative

Abstract

Women smallholders face greater constraints than men in accessing capital and commodity markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. Collective action has been promoted to remedy those disadvantages. Using survey data of 421 women members and 210 nonmembers of a coffee producer cooperative in Western Uganda, this study investigates the determinants of women's participation in cooperatives and women's intensity of participation. The results highlight the importance of access to and control over land for women to join the cooperative in the first place. Participation intensity is measured through women's participation in collective coffee marketing and share capital contributions. It is found that duration of membership, access to extension services, more equal intrahousehold power relations, and joint land ownership positively influence women's ability to commit to collective action. These findings demonstrate the embeddedness of collective action in gender relations and the positive value of women's active participation for agricultural-marketing cooperatives.

How Cooperative Are Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Developing Countries?: An Analysis of Datasets From Uganda

“…Alternatively, the scope of economic resources committed by members with or through the cooperative can be deployed as an indicator of depth of collective action. Meier zu Selhausen () uses the proportion of coffee that members sell to the cooperative as opposed to selling to other buyers. Cazuffi and Moradi () and Meier zu Selhausen () use members’ share capital.…”

“…Meier zu Selhausen () uses the proportion of coffee that members sell to the cooperative as opposed to selling to other buyers. Cazuffi and Moradi () and Meier zu Selhausen () use members’ share capital. Meier zu Selhausen () analyses the decision of 320 female members to buy more than the obligatory shares in their coffee cooperative in Uganda.…”

“…Cazuffi and Moradi () and Meier zu Selhausen () use members’ share capital. Meier zu Selhausen () analyses the decision of 320 female members to buy more than the obligatory shares in their coffee cooperative in Uganda. He concludes that share capital distribution is a valid indicator of depth of collective action.…”

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in the global food sector: A systematic literature review to examine small farmers engagement in contract farming

“…The first grand theme relates to the dynamics of smallholder participation in contract farming programs. Herein, studies examine barriers and motivations for smallholder participation in contract farming (Lozano & Heinen, 2016;Selhausen, 2016), factors influencing the intensity of smallholder participation in contract farming (Selhausen, 2016), and factors influencing smallholder choice of contracts (Ma & Abdulai, 2016;Saenger et al, 2013). The second grand theme relates to the impacts of contract farming as a poverty reduction initiative.…”

“…The second grand theme relates to the impacts of contract farming as a poverty reduction initiative. Herein, studies examine the benefits associated with income and/or productivity levels of smallholders participating in contract farming (Briones, 2015;Dedehouanou et al, 2013;Ruben & Fort, 2012), the gendered implications of contract farming (Maertens & Swinnen, 2012;Selhausen, 2016), and the effect of contract farming on food security (Bellemare & Novak, 2016).…”