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RIMAIAgribusiness SchoolMy land

D-cooperative Dictionary

Cooperative

A business owned by its farmer members to buy, store, process or sell together

All termsIntroduced in Module 4Open the Toolkit
An open dictionary on a farm office desk
Plain meaning
A business owned by its farmer members to buy, store, process or sell together
How to use it
Join or form a cooperative when buying inputs, storing, transporting or selling together would cut costs or reach buyers a single farmer cannot.
South African benchmark
Cooperatives shaped South African commercial farming for decades (Article 146).
Country notes
Cooperatives exist in all four local markets; strength varies widely, so check the cooperative's record before joining.
Go and read
C4 Lesson 4.5, C1 Lesson 1.2, C3 Lesson 3.5
Calculate it
No calculator; the term is applied in the venture plan narrative.
Library sources
LIB-A128, LIB-A146, LIB-A147
See also
Aggregator, Producer association, Side-selling
Eight small farms pooling produce through a co-operative to reach a buyer or lenderMany small farms, one strong sellerCO-OPERATIVEBuyer or lenderPooling volume gives small farms grading, transport and bargaining power.
Cooperative, shown as a diagram.

Introduced in C4 Getting to the Buyer.