Assessing the Welfare Effects of Cooperative Membership Among Smallholder Farmers in Zambia: Evidence from Chisamba and Chibombo Districts

Nicholus Obby Mainza; Frank Kayula; Chipego Kafunga Hachinene

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.72634

Assessing the Welfare Effects of Cooperative Membership Among Smallholder Farmers in Zambia: Evidence from Chisamba and Chibombo Districts

Author(s)	Mr. Nicholus Obby Mainza, Prof. Dr. Frank Kayula, Mr. Chipego Kafunga Hachinene
Country	Zambia
Abstract	Agricultural cooperatives are frequently promoted as vehicles for improving rural welfare, yet district-level empirical evidence from Zambia remains limited. This article assessed the welfare effects of cooperative membership among smallholder farmers in Chisamba and Chibombo Districts using data from a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 398 respondents. Primary data were collected through structured face-to-face interviews. The welfare analysis focused on respondents’ retrospective before-and-after assessments of access to agricultural inputs, markets, credit, agricultural knowledge, socio-economic support, maize productivity per hectare, and household meals consumed per day. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the distributions, while symmetry chi-square tests and the Stuart-Maxwell marginal homogeneity test were employed to evaluate statistically significant shifts in paired ordinal responses. The descriptive results showed marked improvements following cooperative membership. Easy access to agricultural inputs increased from 10.81% to 89.95%, market access from 12.57% to 87.69%, credit access from 8.29% to 88.19%, knowledge access from 13.32% to 95.23%, and socio-economic support from 15.33% to 93.46%. Farmers producing at least 25 bags of maize per hectare increased from 11.05% to 81.15%, while households consuming three or more meals per day rose from 12.31% to 91.96%. The symmetry chi-square and Stuart-Maxwell tests showed statistically significant improvements across all welfare dimensions examined, namely access to agricultural inputs, market access, credit access, knowledge access, socio-economic support, maize production per hectare, and number of meals consumed per day (all p < .001). The findings suggest that cooperative participation is strongly associated with multidimensional welfare improvement among smallholder farmers. Strengthening cooperative service delivery, accountability, and sustained member participation could deepen welfare gains in rural Zambia.
Keywords	cooperative membership, welfare, smallholder farmers
Field	Sociology > Economics
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-04-03
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.72634

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Assessing the Welfare Effects of Cooperative Membership Among Smallholder Farmers in Zambia: Evidence from Chisamba and Chibombo Districts

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