A thesis submitted in patial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning Management and Innovation

Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2024

This research aims to fill the research gaps related to the performance of agricultural cooperatives and their relationship to promote the member{u2019}s livelihood. The research has four objectives: (1) to assess the performance of the selected ACs; (2) to assess the current livelihood assets of the selected ACs members; (3) to identify factors affecting to the members {u2018}livelihood outcomes; and (4) to provide recommendations for agricultural cooperative sector. This is exploratory research which used mixed methods. Chi Kraeng district in Siem Reap province , Cambodia, was purposively chosen as the study area. To get data, 178 household members and 10 KIIs were interviewed for the survey questionnaires and semi structured checklist questions. The result showed that each AC performance was different. AC2 and AC3 performance were in a degree of 2High3, while the AC1 and AC4 were in a degree of 2Moderate3. For the status of the current livelihood assets of the respondents, the result revealed that the livelihood of AC1, AC3, and AC4 respondents were better than AC2, with its degree of 2Moderate3 for AC2 and a degree of 2High3 for AC1, AC3, and AC4. Furthermore, there was 60 percent of the respondents who had improved their livelihood. The inferential statistical test depicted that the factors influencing to the livelihood outcomes were the main occupation with farming job category, the second occupation with farming job category, the age of the housing unit, the price of the housing unit, human assets, social assets, and financial assets. Hence, it can accept on the hypotheses of H1a, H1b, H1c, H1e, but rejected on H1d. In conclusion, the study proves the positive impact of ACs to the community. However, there is no any factor from the AC performance influencing to the AC respondents{u2019} livelihood due to limited capacity of AC itself and AC members which needed the continous support from development partners like NGOs, private sectors and also the government. Moreover, the limited capacity of the supporting actors like the governement and NGOs partners to support ACs movement is also a concern to push for faster growth of the AC movement in Cambodia.