Abstract:
Agricultural marketing cooperatives are seen as fundamental organisations towards
improving members and their household welfare. However, for the past few decades these
organisotions have got challenges in achieving its goals und objectives which brought the
need for this dissertation to analyse the extent to which agricultural marketing co operatives have contributed towards improving members' household welfare among the
rural ssmall-scale farmers from four villages in Moshi Rural District. A cross-sectional
design was aadopted whereby purposive and simple random sampling techniques were
used. In total, the study involved respondents AMCOs members and non-member. Data
were collected through survey method whereby semi-structured questionnaire as well as
key informant interview where interview checklist was used as a tool. Both quantitative
(descriptive) and qualitative (content) methods of data analysis were used with an aid of
SPSS. In descriptive analysis. statistics such as frequencies, mean and percentages were
computed. T-test was also applied. Findings of the study showed that crop und animal
husbandry were mots preferred farming activities byAMCOs members and non -members.
Also, the 'T-test analysis revealed that income contribution to household was statistically
significant compared to income of non-members at P<0.05. The findings aalso indicated
that agricultural marketing cooperatives provided access to agricultural markets to their
members above all services. In general, the study observed that AMCOs have more
positive contribution in improving the welfare of the members in terms of improving
income, assets ownership, and capacity to access social services, improving their
household conditions, and enhance food security compared to non-members.
