Does cooperative membership improve technology adoption? The case of dairy buffalo farmers in the Philippines
Agham, C. Cuevas1, Ceptryl, S. Mina2.
Cooperative has long been regarded as a vital tool to promote technology adoption and boost
smallholder farmers’ income. Cooperatives are being tapped to extend hands-on training and
seminars on production and management practices in dairy buffalo milk production. Several studies
investigated the causal relationship between technology adoption and cooperative membership.
However, no empirical studies tried to explore the effect of cooperative membership on the
technology adoption extensity. This study analyzes the factors affecting the decision of farmers to
become members of cooperatives and the impact of cooperative membership on the adoption of
technologies. The study utilized farm-level data from 351 randomly selected dairy buffalo raisers
from the Philippines’ major dairy buffalo milk-producing regions. The Poisson regression with
endogenous treatment model was used to analyze causality that links cooperative membership
to technology adoption. Variables representing cooperative membership, farmgate price of milk,
dairy farming as the primary source of income, training attendance, number of milking cows,
and cold storage (refrigerator/freezer) ownership positively influence the technology adoption.
The results of the endogenous treatment regression show that cooperative membership positively
and significantly influenced technology adoption. Findings imply that cooperative membership
is an effective tool to enhance technology uptake among dairy buffalo farmers for improved
productivity and income.
Affiliation:
- University of the Philippines Los Banos, Philippines
- University of the Philippines Los Banos, Philippines
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