Abstract

This study was conducted to identify obstacles hampering the achievement of livestock cooperatives in Khodabandeh Township. This survey- descriptive research was carried out to investigate barriers to the success of livestock cooperatives in this city. A questionnaire was developed by the researchers and used for data collection. The instrument was validated by a panel of experts in the Department of agricultural extension and education at Zanjan University. Its reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha index. The population consisted of (N= 220) livestock cooperative members. A simple random sampling method was used to select respondents (n= 140).  Findings showed that 19 factors associated with obstacles hampering the achievement of livestock cooperatives in the Khodabandeh Township which was divided into four general categories. An Assessment by members’ viewpoint indicated that 6 factors had very high importance, 9 of them had large importance but only 4 factors had low or medium importance. Also factorial analysis results revealed that success barriers of livestock cooperatives divided to 5 categories namely marketing, economic, managerial, organizational and social factors. These factors were able to explained 69.24% of the total variance barriers of cooperatives successful in the livestock sector.