Cooperative Farming
Senior 3 · Agriculture
Cooperative Farming
Lesson 1 of 3
20 min
Let's begin
In the 2024–25 financial year, Rwanda's school feeding programme bought 14,333.91 tonnes of paddy rice, not from thousands of separate farmers, but from 48 cooperatives (MINAGRI, Annual Report 2024–2025). A single family with a small marshland plot could never sign such a contract: it could not supply enough, on time, dried and graded to the buyer's standard. Together, as a cooperative, rice farmers can. This lesson explains what a cooperative is, why farmers form them, and the values they share.
Definition
Cooperative: an organisation that people join voluntarily and own and control together, to meet shared economic and social needs. Rwanda's Law N° 057 of 2024 governing cooperatives defines a primary cooperative as a first-tier cooperative of individuals, organisations or groups that have joined together voluntarily to carry out activities for their socio-economic development, according to the principles governing cooperatives.
Member: a person who has joined a cooperative, bought at least one share (a part of its capital) and takes part in its decisions.
Cooperative farming: farmers working together through a cooperative, for example to buy inputs, use machines, process and market their produce.
Surplus: what is left from a cooperative's income after its costs; under the law, profits from a cooperative's activities belong to its members.
Figure 21. Selling alone and selling through a cooperative.
| Importance | How the cooperative helps |
|---|---|
| Better prices for produce | members sell large, dried and graded lots, bargain together and reach big buyers such as mills, exporters and school feeding |
| Cheaper inputs | buying seed, fertiliser and feed in bulk lowers the price per bag and the transport cost |
| Shared equipment and facilities | stores, drying floors, milk collection centres, rice mills and tractors that no member could afford alone |
| Access to credit | banks and SACCOs lend more readily to an organised group with records |
| Training and information | extension services, farmer field schools and market news reach many farmers at once |
| Adding value | processing (milling, drying, packing honey, making cheese) earns more than selling raw produce |
| Jobs and income | for managers, accountants, store keepers and workers, often young people and women |
| Solidarity and voice | members help each other in hard times and speak with one voice to government and buyers |
MINAGRI uses cooperatives to reach farmers: in 2024–25 it gave modern beekeeping equipment to 10 beekeepers' cooperatives, and most of the fish farmers trained that year (1,680 of 1,737) were members of cooperatives in fish-farming clusters (Annual Report 2024–2025).
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) says that cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity, and that their members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.
| Value | What it looks like in a farmers' cooperative |
|---|---|
| Self-help and self-responsibility | members solve their own problems together, rather than waiting for outside help |
| Democracy and equality | every member has one vote, whatever the number of shares they own |
| Equity | surplus is shared fairly, in proportion to what each member brought to the cooperative |
| Solidarity | members support each other, for example after a poor harvest |
| Honesty and openness | accurate weighing and records; accounts shown to all members |
| Social responsibility and caring for others | the cooperative supports the wider community, such as schools and the environment |
Worked example 1: the gain from selling together
Problem. A farmer has 300 kg of dried paddy. A trader at the farm gate offers 400 Frw per kg. The cooperative sells to a mill at 480 Frw per kg and keeps 20 Frw per kg to cover its costs (illustrative prices). How much more does the farmer earn by selling through the cooperative?
Solution.
Answer: 18,000 Frw more, and the cooperative's share pays for the store, the scales and the manager who found the buyer.
Worked example 2: how big were the school-feeding sales?
Problem. 48 cooperatives sold 14,333.91 t of paddy rice to the school feeding programme in 2024–25 (MINAGRI). What was the average sale per cooperative?
Solution.
Answer: about 299 tonnes per cooperative, far more than any single smallholder could supply.
Warning
Common mistakes. (1) Thinking a cooperative is a charity or a government project: it is a business owned by its members. (2) Thinking members with more shares get more votes: each member has one vote. (3) Confusing a cooperative with a company, where votes and profits follow the number of shares.
Tip
Memory hook: "Buy together, sell together, learn together, decide together."
Opportunity International UK: "Supporting Farming Cooperatives in Rwanda". Note what the farmers gain from working as a cooperative, and how training and loans help them.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the text, the tables, Figure 21 and the worked examples. Prices in the worked examples are illustrative.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
