Analysis of members participation in an agricultural cooperative

Abstract

Given the dual role played by the members of the cooperative, as the owner and user, one of the challenges agricultural
cooperatives face is to keep the member participating both in its governance and economically. It is known that members’
economic participation lessens when agricultural cooperatives grow larger. The non-participation of members can lead
the cooperative to have great survival problems in the short and long term. Given this context, the aim of this article is
to identify the level of members’ participation in an agricultural cooperative. To meet the objective, a semi-structured
interview was carried out with the chair of the board of directors of an agricultural cooperative in the state of Mato
Grosso do Sul and a survey was applied to the members. A descriptive qualitative analysis of the data obtained from the
interview and a descriptive statistical analysis of the data obtained from the survey were carried out. With the results, it
was identified that the level of members’ participation is far below that desired by the executive board in the cooperative.