What factors influence performance of farmer groups? A review of literature on parameters that measure group performance

Abstract

Farmers form and participate in groups in order to benefit socially and economically through collective activities. However, membership in groups alone is not enough to facilitate improvement of livelihoods, owing to the fact that only successful groups would be able to fully exploit their potential and meet the interests of their members. Understanding group performance is therefore a pertinent issue among social researchers and development practitioners working with farmers groups. Findings from literature indicate that scholars have measured performance of group differently, and this can be divided into three broad areas: Group performance measured by level of cohesion/group characteristics, group performance measured by outputs/benefits and group performance measured by both level of cohesion/group characteristics and outputs/benefits. The measurement of performance of groups engaging in the same activities has been much easier, however; for the groups that engage in diverse activities the measurement of their performance becomes even more complicated. This study concludes that group performance can be measured in various ways depending with what researchers and development practitioners want to investigate and achieve.