IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES ON CASSAVA FARMERS’ PRODUCTIVITY IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2021
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Abstract
The study examined the impact of services rendered by cooperative societies to cassava farmers’
Productivity in Ondo State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total
of 120 cassava farmers from the state. Primary data were collected through the administration of
a structured questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive statistics, Torquist -theil total factor
productivity, Tobit regression model, Krippendorff Alpha Reliability Test. Findings indicated that
majority of the respondents in the study area were still within the active age (50.4years for
members, and 49.5years for non-members) necessary to carry out laborious activities involved in
agricultural production. It was revealed that majority of the respondents were male and married
with an average household size of nine persons. However the average year of experience was 13.7
for members and 14.9 for non-members with four major varieties of cassava planted namely
Vitamin A cassava, TME419 cassava, TME508 cassava and Local cassava. The results from the
study further indicated that 81.7% of cooperative members and 73.4% of non-cooperative
members were involved in alternative livelihood activities such as trading, artisan, sales of farm
produce, processing of farm produce, poultry/livestock production. The Alpha value for the
militating factors against the effectiveness of farmers cooperative was 0.76.The average TFP for
Cassava farmers in Agricultural Cooperative Societies (CFACS) and Cassava farmers not in
Agricultural Cooperative Societies (CFNACS) were 1.66 and 0.56 respectively, also the average
tones produced by Cassava farmers in Agricultural Cooperative Societies and Cassava farmers not
in Agricultural Cooperative Societies were14.4tons and 11.9tons respectively. In addition most of
the respondents used family and hired labour and the distance covered from home to farm was less
than 5kilometer for most of the respondents. The major factors influencing productivity of Cassava
farmers in Agricultural Cooperative Societies were age, level of education, farm size, saving
mobilization, access to market, and market information. Access to credit was significant at 1% and
technical training, farm experience were statistical significant at 5%, while access to input supplies
was significant at 10%. Access to credit has a significant positive impact on cassava productivity.
Thus, credit institutions should consider boosting their credit services to rural farming households
in order to guarantee that more households benefit from it.
Therefore, the efforts to raise productivity of cassava farmers should be geared towards
strengthening cooperative management so that the societies can fulfill their primary goal of solving
farmers’ financial.