An Analysis of Governance Factors Influencing Performance of Selected Smallholder Dairy Cooperatives in Zimbabwe

Cooperatives are organizations owned and operated by individuals or groups that use its services. Marketing of milk is through dairy cooperatives where the milk collection centres are mandated to help integrating smallholder farmers into competitive markets. The study investigated governance structures of five smallholder dairy schemes purposively selected based on their agroecological regions in Zimbabwe, coded A, B, E (Region II), D (Region III) and C (Region IV). Qualitative data were collected using focus group discussions with 20 dairy cooperative members from each milk collection centre. Key informant interviews were conducted with chairpersons, management committee members and dairy value chain stakeholders such as dairy associations and processors. The SWOT analysis technique was employed to identify governance structures highlighting major strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats as a gateway to isolating strategies for enhancing centre performance. An analysis of implications of the governance structures on resource allocation decision by farmers was also performed. The study results show that poor governance mainly caused by incompetent boards and management committees was the major factor affecting performance. Other findings were that if good governance factors were in place, then cooperatives became proficient leading to their growth. Thus, cooperatives must adopt business models based on private sector partnerships to maximise on expertise and technical support. The schemes ought to take advantage of existing opportunities, especially policies that mitigate threats and improve product diversity, value addition and effective pricing strategies. To achieve these milestones, capacity building roadmaps ought to identify competent and efficient boards.