Analysis of cooperative principles in the success of agricultural cooperatives in Zulia

The cooperative movement in Venezuela reached unprecedented levels of growth with the adoption of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (1999) and the Cooperatives Act (2001). By 2006 there were 108,000 cooperatives, and the figure rose to 306,792 in 2011 estimated that by 2013 only about 40,000 will survive, mainly due to the lack of consideration of associated labor and other cooperative values. These data justify the need to analyze the cooperative principles in the success of agricultural cooperatives in Zulia State. The research was conducted in the counties located at the South of Maracaibo's Lake, a questionnaire to 51 cooperatives and interview to cooperative specialists were applied. Overall rate of success factors (IGFE), index review of success factors (IOE), and the index of productive activities (IAP) which have been subjected to correlation and means tests: success rates were constructed. The results emphasize that the principles with high average values and statistical significance in successful cooperatives are democratic management (0.7059), equal economic participation of partners (0.5233), education, training and information (0.4560), cooperation between cooperatives (0.4882) and commitment to the communities (0.3331). A significant correlation (P<0.01) between the IGFE (0.598) and IOE (0.598) with the dependent variable IAP was observed. It was concluded that the application of cooperative principles in the constitution and organization of cooperatives has been a condition of success.