The major objective of the research is to examine the role of dairyrnCooperatives in reducing poverty in terms of promoting opportunities,rnfacilitating empowerment, and enhancing security in Ethiopia. Therncomparative analysis of small scale dairy value adding with small scale nonprocessingrnor marketing only dairy cooperatives is done for this purpose. ,rnThe case of Ada'a Dairy Cooperative as a processing one and the case ofrnSelale Dairy Cooperative Union as milk marketing are selected in the study. Inrnboth cooperative sides, simple random sampling was mainly used withrnsurvey questionnaire, interview with different bodies in the cooperativernactivities, and Focus Group Discussion. Moreover, the study is descriptivernand exploratory.rnAs a result of the study, the change in the living conditions of the farmersrnafter their membership, the underutilized potential of the processing unit inrnAda'a, the opportunities and readiness of Selale Dairy Union, thernmanagement problems of the cooperatives, the after membership poverty ,rnlevel of the farmers, the actors who are supporting the cooperative activities,rnand the overall socio- economic situations of the farmers are clearlyrndescribed. Moreover, it is verified that most of the farmers are not benefitedrnfrom the cooperative activities so far because of different internal reasonsrnthough they are in a better condition than before their membership.rnIn general, in before - after analysis the cooperatives are successful inrnpromoting opportunities for the farmers. There is a change in differentrnindicators such as income, expenditure, price of milk and access to betterrnmarkets. Unlikely, both are not successful in facilitating empowerment andrnenhancing security for the farmers.rnKey Words: Poverty, Poverty Reduction, and Dairy Cooperatives