EVALUATING FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE PERFORMANCE OF FARMER’S COOPERATIVE UNION IN SILTIE ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Agricultural cooperatives, as self- help group organizations, play a meaningful role in uplifting the socio-economic conditions of their members and their local communities. Keeping in view the role of agricultural cooperatives in enhancing agricultural production, the study was undertaken in the prime objective of assessing the performance of melik siltie farmers cooperative union in siltie zone. To address the objective of the study 198 sample respondents were selected from six member primary cooperatives on proportionate to size. Both primary and secondary data were collected from members' primary cooperatives, the union and relevant of ices. To achieve the objectives, descriptive statics such as percentage, frequency and trend analysis were used to examine the operational performance of the union, the member's satisfaction and constraints that hinder the performance of the union. Ratio analysis was also used to evaluate the financial performance of the union. The result of the operational performance i.e. The services provided by the union revealed that the result shows that the union and its member cooperatives were functioning better in fertilizer distribution which shows the union increases its share of distribution of fertilizer in terms of volume and value in the study period. The performance of seed marketed by the union shows fluctuating trends. The union performance in marketing members' produce was increasing in volume from year to year but the type and amount of product marketed by the union was low. The union in general could not obtain a suf icient market, nor make available suf icient storage capacity. The liquidity analysis showed that source of the current assets of the union in the study period was mainly from receivable account and inventories. In addition to this leverage ratio analysis show that the union at the beginning of the study period shows creditors contributed more finance than the owners do. The union also was not consistent in generating gross net profit. Among the constraints hindering the performance of the union , lack of capital, low capacity of the union and primary cooperatives board member, low provision of transportation and storage services and unable to pay dividend to members by primary cooperatives were the prominent ones. To increase its performance the union should design marketing strategy in output marketing, manage its asset and liabilities and mobilize members its members to overcome capital shortage