The Hidden Impact of Cooperative Membership on Quality Management: A Case Study from the Dairy Belt of Addis Ababa

During the last decade Ethiopia has been witnessing a return to agricultural cooperatives as means to unleash the national agri-food market. Using primary bio-economic data from Ethiopia, this study evaluates the impact of cooperative membership on milk production, productivity, quality and safety. To do so we compare the performance of cooperative and individual milk farmers sampled from the dairy belt of Addis Ababa. We use both instrumental variable regression and propensity score matching methods to control for pre-existing differences between the two groups of farmers and isolate the “cooperative impact”. Findings are consistent across the two methods in suggesting that cooperative membership has a positive impact on milk production and productivity, no significant effect on milk hygiene and a negative impact on milk quality. The study concludes with implications for policy and for further research.