Revitalizing the role of cooperatives in Ethiopian economy

Cooperatives are indispensable institutions for addressing structural problems facing Ethiopia, and are believed to play a prominent role in achieving goals of the broad development policy and strategy of the country. This study was conducted with a general objective of analyzing the role of cooperatives to Ethiopian Economy by looking at specific objectives such as analyzing cooperative development trends in Ethiopia; analyzing the role of cooperatives in agricultural input supply, export earnings; assessing employment generation role of cooperatives; and identifying constraints that affect cooperative development in Ethiopia. Both primary and secondary data together with descriptive analysis are used in this study. The primary data is collected using expert interviews. Cooperatives have played significant role in the recently registered successive agricultural growth in the country, by serving as major agricultural input supplier and distribution channel throughout the country. They also contribute a lot to the national foreign exchange earnings, availing finance and employment provision. Cooperatives’ membership trend has been significantly increasing in the country. On the other hand, cooperatives are not sensitive to gender mainly because of their limited women membership. But cooperatives are hampered by several constraining factors that hinder their utmost contribution and role in the economy. The cooperatives have limited engagement in various business areas and their operation is dominated by agricultural input delivery activities.