(Re)Conceptualizing the Role of Agricultural Cooperatives in Sustainable Rural Livelihood Strategies: a case study from the Niayes region of Senegal

Agricultural cooperatives have been identified as potentially powerful mechanisms for supporting sustainable rural and agricultural development while also contributing to poverty- reduction. However, their ability to... [ view full abstract ]

Agricultural cooperatives have been identified as potentially powerful mechanisms for supporting sustainable rural and agricultural development while also contributing to poverty- reduction. However, their ability to sustainably and equitably address chronic poverty in often remote rural landscapes remains contested, with successes and failures evident in the literature. To date, few studies have focused explicitly on the social dimension of agricultural cooperatives, with even fewer exploring their potential to meaningfully contribute to the sustainable livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper seeks to help address this knowledge gap, by exploring how a successfully functioning agricultural cooperative in Senegal contributed to the development of its member’s diverse livelihood assets, including human, social, physical, financial, and natural capitals. Our findings indicate that cooperatives can indeed play an important role in assisting members to build bridging and linking social capitals, gain access to training and education activities, access financial credit and agricultural machinery, and help protect their natural resources from degradation. We identified two potential factors, access to agricultural credit and agricultural extension services that had a positive impact on the cooperative’s ability to equitably support the development of its members. Importantly, our results also suggest that a member’s level of social capital (i.e., their social networks) will likely act as a limiting factor on their ability to access other forms of capital.