Organisational attributes of cooperatives and farmer companies

How collective organisations can provide smallholders access to modern markets is widely discussed. Smallholder farmers collectively gain economies of scale, access to technology, pool their capital resources to invest in value-added activities and gain bargaining power. Different forms of collective organisations have emerged around the developing world, where smallholder farmers are predominant. Nonetheless, information about the organisational attributes of different collective organisations is scant. This study aims to analyse and compare the organisational attributes of two forms of collective organisations namely, Cooperatives and Farmer Companies (FCs). A range of organisational attributes (ownership, control, benefit, governance, marketing, and external factors) of cooperatives and FCs in the Sri Lankan rice sector are analysed and compared. This study employed qualitative methodology, using face to face semi-structured interviews. Results revealed that cooperatives and FCs have similar control and benefit attributes and different ownership and governance attributes. These FCs accepted external investments while the cooperatives accepted products from non-members. The FCs were more specialised in the specific type of rice grain sold to regional and specific markets. Both types of collective organisations had received substantial governmental financial support, however cooperatives were also strongly influenced by external governmental departments and exempted from tax.