Journal of Oasis Agriculture and Sustainable Development www.joasdjournal.org DOI: https://doi.org/10.56027/JOASD262023 | December 2023 1 RESEARCH ARTICLE The Contribution of Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies to Farmers’ Livelihoods in Mvomero and Kilombero Districts, Tanzania Anderson Gregory Rwela Department of Economics and Social Studies (ESS), School of Spatial Planning and Social Sciences (SPSS), Ardhi University, Tanzania Article info Abstract Article history: Received: 02 August 2023 Accepted: 31 October 2023 Collective action through Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies (AMCOS) is a significant tool for improving smallholder livelihoods; hence, contributing to farmers’ economic development. AMCOS provides a favourable atmosphere for an effective government aid scheme, farm input supply, and mobilization of funds from external support services organizations. However, farmers are facing many challenges, such as inadequate access to agricultural credit, market linkage, information, inadequate technologies, and underperforming markets. There are mixed findings on whether or not agricultural cooperatives improve members’ livelihoods. Therefore, this study evaluated the contribution of AMCOS to members’ livelihood outcomes and constraints for sustainable livelihood development. A total of 340 respondents were interviewed. The findings showed that AMCOS members had higher outcomes in some livelihoods than non-members of AMCOS. In addition, AMCOS contributed to members’ income and some of the assets. Lastly, stakeholders pointed out inefficient service delivery, inadequate skills of co-operative managers, and district co-operative officers’ interference in AMCOS business, which deprived members of co-operative autonomy, as constraints facing AMCOS to enhance sustainable livelihoods for members. Therefore, the study recommends that AMCOS management improve service delivery and plan for continuous staff development. Also, District Co-operative Officers should observe co-operative principles and values in executing their duties. Keywords: Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies, livelihood outcomes, Assets, Income, Food security Copyrightⓒ2023 JOASD *Corresponding author anderson.rwela@ aru.ac.tz Conflict of Interest: The author declare no conflict of interest. 1. INTRODUCTION Most countries in Africa depend largely on the agriculture sector for their livelihoods (IFAD 2011), and indeed the sector is considered the main pathway to livelihoods improvement in African countries (Asfaw et al., 2012; Christensen et al., 2011; Dawson et al., 2016) Agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has stagnated over the past forty years, averaging only 2.4%, while that in other third- world nations has increased by 4.0%, according to a study by Tittonell and Giller (2013). This is because SSA has lagged behind in agricultural sector development. Mhembwe, & Dube (2017) noted that at least 40% of the households in Africa are members of cooperative societies. Thus, when taken as a whole, the cooperative movement is taken to be Africa’s biggest non- governmental organization (NGO) and they significant role in many national economies and have created a great number of self-employment opportunities in Africa. In Tanzania, like in other developing countries, agriculture plays a central role in the economy. The sector accounts for about 70.0% of all employment and about 24.0% - 30.0% of all export earnings in the country. About 75.0% of Tanzania’s population live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and as a source of employment (URT, 2016). Therefore, the agriculture sector determines the fate of the economy of the country in general. Despite its economic importance, smallholder farmers who live on the threshold of subsistence farming dominate the sector. Moreover, their agricultural production system depends on poor