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Cooperative movement in Ethiopia has been identified as a suitable vehicle for mobilization of resources for rural development. Multi-purpose cooperatives are one form of cooperatives that are providing different services to their members.Their general tasks have been provision of inputs and credit and support in the marketing of basic products. The result of the survey indicated that cooperatives are serving the rural community and contributing a lot in improving the standards of living of their members. They undertake various economic activities which help the members in promoting agricultural products. However, because of poor implementation capacity and low managerial, financial and operational competence, multipurpose cooperatives have not been able to strengthen and expand their business operations as per the expectations. In summary, the rural cooperatives studied appears to have played a significant role in increasing economic production of agricultural sector and can be considered as agents of change, though they need capacity building programs so as to improve the efficiency of the services and become competitive in the market.

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