Retrospective and Prospective Attitudes of Small Holders to Commercial Cooperation. The case of dried pulses in the Maule Región

Abstract

In spite of a gradual revival of peasant co-operatives in last live-years in Chile, there still prevails a resistance of the sector to organise themselves for commercial activities. Improved programmes to promote cooperation, should be based upen prevailing group attitudes and expectations. Here it is surveyed botli retrospective and prospective attitudes towards co-operation of 395 small producer of dried pulses trom tlie Maule Región. Botli Likert and semantic diferential attitudinal scales failed to work with this kind of respondents. A five-stages sampling procedure is weighted by production, producers, agroecological área, access to locality and local experts, providing 95% sampling confidence and 4% estímales error. As a result, tlie «ideal organisation» is non-political, democratic, independant from government, small, and both productive and commercially focused. Preferences over the nature of management are equally divided between professionals and members, although there are important. local variations. It is proposed a progressive attitudinal model to account for both experience and expectatives.