Co‐Operative Membership: A Pathway to Climate Resilience for Smallholder Farmers

ABSTRACT Climate change threatens millions of Nepal's rural farmers as a consequence of a lack of institutional support and low adaptive capacity. Agricultural co‐operatives have emerged as a promising solution to increase farmers' resilience; however, their role across different co‐operative types remains underexplored. This study examines the driving factors of producer and multipurpose co‐operatives and their influence on farmers' adoption of climate change adaptation strategies, using survey data from 400 households across three agro‐ecological zones in Nepal. The results from the probit and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) model showed different patterns of participation across co‐operative types. Membership in producer co‐operatives is driven by household labour availability and midland agro‐ecological conditions. In contrast, multipurpose co‐operatives are mainly driven by higher education, access to information, and perception of climate risks. More specifically, the likelihood of adoption of adaptation strategies by producer and multipurpose co‐operatives increases by approximately 0.73 and 0.77 practices, respectively, compared to non‐members. These effects result from better access to inputs, climate information, financial services, and collective learning mechanisms facilitated by co‐operatives. Overall, our results underscore that co‐operatives function as institutional platforms that simultaneously reduce multiple constraints and enable higher adoption of climate adaptation strategies. Policies should prioritise the use of co‐operatives as delivery platforms. In particular, producer co‐operatives associated with labour availability and midland conditions should focus on input provision and production support, whereas multipurpose co‐operatives in lowland zones should incorporate climate advisory services and training.