article · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Dairy cooperatives support smallholder farmers by offering market access, farming inputs, and collective decision-making, yet their success relies heavily on strong internal governance. In Central Malawi, the factors shaping how members participate in cooperative governance were evaluated across ten organisations using a mixed-methods approach. The member base mainly comprises middle-aged, married farmers with modest incomes and small herds. Analysis shows that education improves both understanding of bylaws and general participation in governance. Older members participate more on boards and show higher bylaw awareness, while higher income raises the likelihood of board membership but reduces broader involvement. Access to credit is linked to lower participation. While formal structures like elected boards and bylaws exist, effective governance is often hampered by poor rule enforcement, low governance literacy, weak accountability, and gender inequality in leadership positions.
Dairy cooperatives are vital for rural livelihoods, but weak governance can undermine member trust and operational sustainability. By identifying how factors such as education, income, and cooperative age affect leadership and participation, this research highlights why transparent, well-enforced rules and targeted governance education are necessary to protect smallholder investments and ensure fairer community-level management.
This empirical assessment can directly inform the operational design, training programmes, and policy frameworks of cooperative managers, agricultural support organisations, and rural development agencies. While not a commercial product, the applied findings provide ready-to-use institutional guidance for improving leadership structures, member engagement, and regulatory enforcement in agricultural cooperatives across Central Malawi.
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Dairy cooperatives play a critical role in improving smallholder farmers’ access to markets, inputs, and collective decision-making. However, the effectiveness of these cooperatives largely depends on governance quality, which influences member participation, transparency, accountability, and sustainability. In Malawi, empirical evidence on socioeconomic and institutional determinants of governance participation in dairy cooperatives remains limited. This study examined these determinants in Central Malawi, focusing on board membership, bylaw awareness, and member involvement. A convergent mixed-methods design was adopted, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches. Quantitative data were collected from 358 to 387 members across 10 cooperatives using structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics, multivariate probit models, marginal effects, cross-equation correlations, fixed effects, and multilevel logit models within the Structure–Conduct–Performance framework. Qualitative data from focus group discussions, key informant interviews, document review, and observations were analysed thematically to complement statistical results. Findings show that cooperative membership is dominated by middle-aged, married, and moderately educated farmers with small herd sizes and low-to-middle incomes. Education significantly increases bylaw awareness and governance participation, while age influences board membership and awareness. Income increases likelihood of board membership but reduces active participation, while household size and herd ownership enhance involvement. Access to credit is associated with lower governance participation. Cooperative age and size significantly shape governance outcomes, with older cooperatives showing stronger awareness and participation but weaker leadership dynamism. Qualitative results confirm that although governance structures such as bylaws, elected boards, and democratic procedures exist, implementation is constrained by weak enforcement, limited governance literacy, inadequate transparency, inconsistent accountability, and gender inequality in leadership. The study concludes that governance participation is shaped by the interaction of socioeconomic and institutional factors. Strengthening enforcement, governance education, inclusive leadership, and gender equity is essential for improving accountability and sustainability in dairy cooperatives in Central Malawi.
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DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2026.1902097
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