Analyzing the perception of smallholder farmers on leadership of agricultural cooperatives in Zimbabwe and its impact on the degree of intensification of members' participation

BSc. Tatendaishe Mandevhana, BSc

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Agricultural cooperatives are crucial in supporting smallholder farmers' livelihood in their communal areas. It is essential to understand the relationship between cooperative leaders and the members and how it influences the success of the cooperative. The study focused on examining smallholder farmers’ perceptions and participation in cooperative leadership and how it influences satisfaction and commitment, a case study of Chipinge district, Zimbabwe. Data was collected using structured questionnaires for individual interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The sample size was 137 members, with active and passive members, among tea and dairy farmers from two wards that are most popular in the district. The questionnaires focused on investigating members’ participation in leadership decision-making, opinion considerations, trust, leaders' selection criteria, motivation, and leadership styles and how all these affect members’ commitment through satisfaction. The tools used were, Nestforms survey tool for questionnaire development, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) for leadership style analysis, IBM SPSS 29.0 for descriptive statistics and lastly, the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) for analysing how members' satisfaction and commitment. The results showed that cooperative members have a positive perception towards their leadership. Active members participate more in cooperative leadership, and their opinions are considered more than passive members. Laissez-faire leadership style was the most common style although, features of transformational and transactional leadership were also identified, which shows that it is essential to incorporate all three leadership styles to have sound leadership system, achieve teamwork, accountability, inspire and motivate members, creativity, and self-sufficiency. Cooperative members proved to be more satisfied but less committed to the cooperative. Possible reasons included the heterogeneity of the cooperatives, and the monopsony of the market, However, although members showed traits of being less committed, evidence showed satisfaction, which was proved by the positive effect of trust, participation in leadership, and incorporation of leadership styles.

Keywords

Inclusivity, Satisfaction, Commitment, Governance, Collaborative perfomance, Smallholder Farmers

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 28. 4. 2024

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 3. 6. 2024
• Supervisor: Ing. Jiří Hejkrlík, Ph.D.
• Reader: Samuel Ahado, externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme:
International Development and Agricultural Economics