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Gian Nicola Francesconi
Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) Amsterdam The Netherlands

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Original article
Published: 02 February 2021 in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics
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Land Shareholding Cooperatives (LSCs) centralize management over fragmented farmland by converting farmers' plots into shares. While these cooperatives have been widely successful in boosting agricultural commercialization among rural smallholders in China, their potential has not yet been recognized in the African context. To fill this gap, we present and discuss a theoretical framework based on recent literature, an in‐depth case study from Uganda and quantitative analyses of data on horticultural cooperatives from Senegal and agricultural and livestock cooperatives from Uganda, Malawi, Madagascar, Rwanda and Kenya. We uncover the existence of cooperatives built on land sharing schemes in different parts of Africa and especially in Rwanda. We find that these LSCs are more likely to mobilize collective marketing and have a higher business‐membership ratio than traditional cooperatives, and we derive a few implications for policymaking.

ACS Style

Gian Nicola Francesconi; Fleur Wouterse. The potential of land shareholding cooperatives for inclusive agribusiness development in Africa. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Gian Nicola Francesconi, Fleur Wouterse. The potential of land shareholding cooperatives for inclusive agribusiness development in Africa. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics. 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gian Nicola Francesconi; Fleur Wouterse. 2021. "The potential of land shareholding cooperatives for inclusive agribusiness development in Africa." Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 20 January 2021 in Sustainability
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While the health impact of COVID-19 in most African countries appears modest, the impact of social distancing measures, closing of markets and reduced mobility is felt across the board. Domestic, labor-intensive and traditional food value chains and the smallholders they serve appear to be particularly affected. During a systemic shock where idiosyncratic risk coping strategies fail, collective or organizational resilience becomes of the essence to protect the livelihoods of smallholders. In this study, we have used pre- and during-shock data on agricultural cooperatives from Southeast Africa to understand how resilient these smallholder-owned organizations are. We find that many organizations could not countervail market-disruptions and fell into a state of dormancy during the pandemic. One reason for this is that collective decision-making was heavily affected by the banning of gatherings. Only a few organizations devised innovative solutions to maintain the market linkages of rural smallholders. The lack of resilience demonstrated by most cooperatives appears to be associated with organizational immaturity, large membership size, elite capture and limited business-orientation, which underscore a general lack of managerial capital.

ACS Style

Nicola Francesconi; Fleur Wouterse; Dorothy Birungi Namuyiga. Agricultural Cooperatives and COVID-19 in Southeast Africa. The Role of Managerial Capital for Rural Resilience. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1046 .

AMA Style

Nicola Francesconi, Fleur Wouterse, Dorothy Birungi Namuyiga. Agricultural Cooperatives and COVID-19 in Southeast Africa. The Role of Managerial Capital for Rural Resilience. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (3):1046.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nicola Francesconi; Fleur Wouterse; Dorothy Birungi Namuyiga. 2021. "Agricultural Cooperatives and COVID-19 in Southeast Africa. The Role of Managerial Capital for Rural Resilience." Sustainability 13, no. 3: 1046.

Original article
Published: 28 August 2018 in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics
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Agricultural cooperatives in Africa tend to be community‐based organizations defined by principles of inclusion, voluntarism, democracy, equity, autonomy, mutuality and solidarity. This means that they generally operate in accordance with the principles endorsed by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). However, only a few of these organizations are successful in commercializing the agricultural produce of their members. In this study, we argue that growth‐problems leading to commercial failure and organizational degeneration in these cooperatives can be attributed to a lack of managerial capital. Drawing on the literature and evidence from the field we set out key management solutions for counterbalancing cooperative principles in the context of rural Africa. These solutions were taught to the leaders and managers of 362 cooperatives at four training events held in Madagascar, Malawi and twice in Uganda. Using a production function for cognitive achievement and key informant interviews, we find that our training contributed to the adoption of the proposed solutions by some of the cooperatives. Using the Ugandan sub‐ sample, we estimate an OLS regression and a PSM model to show that the training translated into higher revenues per member generated through collective commercialization.

ACS Style

Gian Nicola Francesconi; Fleur Wouterse. BUILDING THE MANAGERIAL CAPITAL OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN AFRICA. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 2018, 90, 141 -159.

AMA Style

Gian Nicola Francesconi, Fleur Wouterse. BUILDING THE MANAGERIAL CAPITAL OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN AFRICA. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics. 2018; 90 (1):141-159.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gian Nicola Francesconi; Fleur Wouterse. 2018. "BUILDING THE MANAGERIAL CAPITAL OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN AFRICA." Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 90, no. 1: 141-159.