What are the main challenges holding back cooperatives?

Leaders of cooperatives across the country have blamed price fluctuations and lack of market for their produce as one of the challenges that discourage farmers’ participation in cooperatives. This was said during the ongoing cooperative leadership seminar at Kabusunzu RICEM Campus-Kigali. The four day seminar comprises 80 elected leaders and managers of cooperative organizations from different business sectors across the country. The training seeks to strengthen and equip the trainees with leadership and managerial skills needed to transform their cooperatives into profitable and professional businesses. Flora Munyabugingo, who heads a Cassava Cooperative known as Combo in Ruhango District said that other than low and unpredictable prices, there are often delays in disbursement of payment. He said that even after securing a market with Kinazi Company, at a significantly low price for the produce, the company did not fulfill its obligations of paying them within the agreed period. “This is quite devastating given the fact that as farmers, we have taken almost a whole year to invest in cassava and when it comes to being paid, we are forced to wait for a period of four months before we can get paid,” he said. Munyabugingo attributed this challenge to one of the reasons farmers seek to exit from cooperatives and work as individuals. The same issue causes misunderstanding between cooperatives’ members and management. Munyabugingo appeals for more investors in cooperatives so that they help in boosting their productivity. Innocent Hakamineza, another farmer who leads a potato cooperative known as ‘Koaibigm’ from Nyabihu District said as leaders, they often don’t have enough capacity to lead their fellow farmers. “Most farmers don’t understand the benefits of joining cooperatives. As leaders, sometimes we don’t have enough skills to influence them. With the training though, I believe this can be worked on,” he said. Angelie Bamurange, another leader of a fruit and vegetable cooperative in Bugesera District said the major problem they face is accessing markets for their fresh produce. “We only have one local market, we are forced to look for other markets ourselves as fruits and vegetables are fast perishable, if we don’t sell them on time, we incur losses,” she said. When there is no market, Bamurange said farmers get discouraged; some of them start by reducing the crop coverage with others switching to other crops. Apart from looking into the problem of pricing and market, she urged the District authorities to provide them with a piece of land where they can constantly practice vegetable farming without having to face uncertainty. Prof. Jean Bosco Harelimana, Director General of Rwanda cooperatives Agency said there is still a problem of poor management among the leaders, which also affects farmers. He noted that leaders tend to take the cooperatives as their own business yet they are supposed to serve one purpose which is benefiting the farmers. Harelimana cited an example where cooperatives were supposed to own all coffee washing stations, but due to poor management, the washing stations were taken over by private investors. “Such challenges have a huge impact on the farmers, by the end of this training, we expect that the beneficiaries will go back fully informed on what is required of them,” he said. Willy Nyirigira, Country Program Manager for the cooperative developing USAID funded programme said that there is a need to instill governance, leadership, management, financial and marketing skills to the leaders in a cooperative context. “This is not only to enable them to better understand their responsibilities and roles as leaders, but also impart ideas on how to market their produce as cooperatives,” he says. Nyirigira added that in areas of cooperatives laws and policies, there is still a big gap as most leaders don’t have enough knowledge of what is expected of them as leaders.

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What are the main challenges holding back cooperatives?