What Factors are Influencing Members' Willingness

The recognition of agricultural cooperatives as crucial means for facilitating smallholder farmers¿ market access and poverty alleviation has been widely acknowledged. It is for this reason that agricultural cooperatives have been promoted in virtually all developing countries. This has witnessed a significant growth of the agricultural cooperative movement. However, despite the growth of the agricultural cooperative movement the problems of smallholder farmers¿ market access and poverty have persisted in most of these countries, like Ethiopia. Constraint of investment capital that arises due to members¿ reduced willingness to contribute equity capital has often been cited as the main reason for agricultural cooperatives¿ inability to facilitate smallholder farmers¿ market access. This study investigated factors influencing members¿ willingness to contribute equity capital.