Abstract
The paper focuses on the origins and development of agricultural co-operative societies in Zimbabwe since 1954 with particular reference to Gowe-Sanyati and evaluates their role in facilitating the channelling of production inputs to farmers and the marketing oftheir produce. It examines the criteria for eligibility to membership of such associations, namely who could belong and who could not, as well as their administrative structures and practices. In addition, the paper evaluates the societies’ impact on their members, on African development and on the national economy. In 1954 the Government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) began investigations on the needfor co-operative societies (co-ops) in order to promote African development through facilitating the acquisition of production inputs and the marketing of agricultural products. In 1956, the first co-operative society was established, while the main focus of thispaper’s interest, the Gowe Irrigation Co-operative Society of Sanyati in the northwestern part of the country, was established in 1967. Established by a government agency known as the Tribal Trust Land Development Corporation (TILCOR), now the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA), the co-operative society flourished and became a model for the distribution of agricultural inputs and credit to African farmers. It collapsed in 1969 due to a number of factors, among them poor management andcorruption.
Highlights
The co-operative system is the offshoot of British utopian socialism
Established by a government agency known as the Tribal Trust Land Development Corporation (TILCOR), the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA), the co-operative society flourished and became a model for the distribution of agricultural inputs and credit to African farmers
Established by a government agency known as the Tribal Trust Land Development Corporation (TILCOR), the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA), the cooperative society at Gowe flourished and became a model for the distribution of agricultural inputs and credit to African farmers
Summary
The co-operative system is the offshoot of British utopian socialism. Its ideology was provided by Robert Owen. The prime source of finance to the peasant farmer in colonial Zimbabwe was the Agricultural Loan Fund (ALF), established in 1958 and administered by the African Development Fund (ADF) It was through the promulgation of the Co-operative Societies Act of 1956 that the supply and marketing co-operatives became the principal means for peasant farmers’ access to inputs and markets. Most of the government credit and agricultural advice available for African irrigation plotholders was directed, through the co-operative society, at this relatively small group of Master Farmers. 59 the DC was an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs whose Co-operatives Branch administered the Co-operative Societies Act. Whilst there were problems associated with marketing produce through the Gowe Co-op, the co-operatives clearly represented a very convenient way for the plotholders to obtain their input items. Low yields meant poor repayment capacity and a combination of the two was often used by the Co-op to exclude a farmer from accessing inputs for the cropping season
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