IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES ON CASSAVA FARMERS’ PRODUCTIVITY IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

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.