The Role Of El Dom Agricultural Cooperative In Rural Development

The broad objective of this research is to enhance greening of the national capital through adoption of tree planting in its different forms among which is forestry cooperative. Forestry cooperative of EL Dom Agricultural Cooperative (El Dom Village, north Aljilly city, Khartoum North) was selected as study case to highlight cooperative forestry. Two types of data were used in this research namely; primary and secondary data. The secondary data was collected from the archive of the Forests National Corporation (FNC), El Dom Agricultural Cooperative and relevant studies carried on the study area. The main findings of the research are; adoption of forestry cooperative intervention contributed to diversification of sources of income where women and children become indulged in the activity of tree planting with reasonable incentive. The intervention of forestry cooperative in the study area is autonomous (locally driven), where some elites proposed the activity and realized by the El Dom Agriculture Cooperation. After establishment, (FNC) contributed to the success of the intervention through provision of seedlings and technical know-how. The villagers perceive the benefits of the forest cooperative differently. Among the benefits of the forestry cooperative, as perceive by the respondents, are; great diversification of agricultural crops (provision of improve seeds), diversification of income, provision of social services (maintenance of schools and health care centre), provision of simple agricultural tools, and consolidation of social relations among the villagers. These benefits coincide with the objective behind which the forestry cooperative was established. The respondents perceived the participation of the villagers differently, but the majority (56%) assessed the participation as fair. Women and children participation is limited to seedlings rearing and irrigation. The V forestry cooperative is managed through elected committee consists of five members, and the committee works under the umbrella of ELdoom Agricultural Cooperative. The main services and products provided by the forestry cooperative are; provision of grazing areas for the livestock, provision of round timber, and protection of agricultural fields against wind erosion. The entire interviewed sample accentuated the sustainability of the activity and its expansion through inclusion of all bare areas within the agricultural cooperative not suitable for conversion to agricultural land. There are some measures of risk and constraints confronting the activity of forestry cooperative, namely; lack of governmental commitment towards the activity, lack of enough forestry experience (technical know-how), irregular supply of electricity, and low level of participation. There are no systematic extensionists' visits to the study area. The study arrived to sound conclusions, some of them are; there are some conditions for the membership of forestry cooperative according to which the local people become entitled to join the cooperative. The main aim of the forestry cooperative is to maximize income generation from the association through addressing forestry activities, as well as the protection of the agricultural lands against wind erosion and increasing agricultural crops productivity. The level of participation lag far beyond the ambition and the drawbacks is represented in the assignment of the activities on certain group. Lack of training for sake of dissemination of information or transfer of technical know-how. The main recommendations drawn are; the importance of governmental commitment to the activity and provision of extension services on systematic basis