Effect of Advance Payment of Coffee Delivered to Farmers Cooperative Societies on Farmers Satisfaction a Case of GUSII Cooperative Societies, Kenya

Abstract

Co-operative societies are meant to increase bargaining power of its members and ensure optimal benefit is achieved in terms of earning higher prices for their produce and improving livelihood of its members. Members of cooperative societies expect marketing agency services offered by Co-operatives to be of high quality based on pricing, duration to payment and commission charged for service offered. This therefore influences the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction felt by the farmers. The purpose of the study was to establish level of influence of advance payment by Coffee marketing agency services on cooperative society members' satisfaction. A case study research design was used on a target population of 1131 farmers in Kisii County and a sample size of 287 drawn using Stratified simple random and simple random sampling technique. Data was obtained using Questionnaires, interview schedule and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques at 0.01 level of confidence with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22. Results of the study showed that 77.3% of farmers were satisfied of being coffee farmers. Results further showed that there was significant influence on advance coffee payments (p=0.000). Advance payments made to farmers were not adequate and reliable, hence the study recommends that coffee cooperative societies in the area need to establish better ways of paying farmers early enough so that farmers will strive to improve their coffee quality and quantity.