African Journal of Agricultural Research and Development, Volume 3, Number 3, 2010

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1 African Journal of Agricultural Research and Development, Volume 3, Number 3, 2010 CONTRIBUTIONS OF AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOME COMMUNITIES IN OVIA SOUTH WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE, NIGERIA Olumese M.I. 1, Gold J.E. 2 and Ataga C 3. 1 Dept. of Extension & Farm Management Tech., Edo State College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, Nigeria 2 Dept of Basic Science, Edo State College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, Edo State, Nigeria 3 Dept. of Crop Production Tech., Edo State College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, Edo State, Nigeria ABSTRACT A study was conducted on the contributions of Agricultural co-operative society to economic development in some selected communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State. The objective was to examine the contributions of cooperative society to economic development as well as identify the problems facing this cooperative society in the study area. Data was collected from Sixty-three (63) respondents through questionnaire and oral-interview method. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency tables and percentages. The hypotheses tested were analyzed by the use of inferential statistics such as correlation coefficient (r). The result of findings show that the mean of = 3.71) of the respondents agreed that cooperative society had contributed meaningfully to agricultural development, while a mean of (x = 3.43) of the respondents agreed that co-operative society create employment opportunities for job seekers in Agricultural enterprises. In addition, the study also revealed that 22% of respondents had primary education, 41.3% had secondary education, while 11.1% of the respondents interviewed had National Diploma (HND) certificate. It was however recommended that Cooperative society should be linked with credit institutions like LAPO in Benin City and commercial banks to provide more credit facilities to the respondents. Also, cooperators should undergo regular trainings and organizing workshops on Credit issues to be able to contribute positively to economic development in terms of boosting Agricultural Production, Processing, Storage and Agric marketing among farmers in the selected communities surveyed in Edo State. Keywords: Contributions, Agricultural Cooperative Society, Credit, Economic development, Edo State INTRODUCTION According to International Labour Organization, (ILO), 1964 Cooperative was defined as an association of persons usually of limited means who voluntarily joined together to achieve a common economic goal through the formation of democratically controlled business organization making equitable contribution to the capital required and accepting a fair share of the risk and benefit of their undertakings. Like any other business enterprises, cooperatives are based on some basic philosophy and principles which regulate their operations. The basic philosophy of the cooperative movement is that of self-help and owes its success to the member willingness to cooperate and being able to grasp the idea of cooperation. The identification of a common problem being the driving force for the setting up of achievable goals. This is why people with the same felt needs always comes together voluntarily to form cooperatives. It is self-help through mutual understanding. The importance or contribution of cooperative society to economic development of any country or community cannot be overemphasized. Cooperatives play vital roles in agricultural development especially in the areas of marketing of the crops, since they act as the marketing board agents. In addition, cooperatives often help farmers to improve upon their product quality through careful grading, branding and packaging. As a result, members receive better prices for their goods and services, which in turn lead to more profit. (Agbonrofo, 2006). Agricultural cooperatives are special cooperatives that are agriculturally based and are set up to solve the problems facing small scale farmers that are mostly rural based in most western part of Nigeria (Anyanwu, etal, 2007). What are the roles of cooperative society to Economic development? Through Cooperative societies, farmers or producers can secure loans/credits from banks to buy farm implements and other inputs. Secondly, through cooperatives, farmers are guaranteed storage and processing facilities. Correspondence Author: Olumese, M.I. olumesedu@gmail.com 36

2 Contributions of Agricultural Co-operative Society to Economic Development in some Communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria Thirdly they can set up good, efficient systems to market their products from the farm through facilities. Thirdly they can set up good, efficient systems to market their products from the farm through the societies; the members can pool their resources together, such as land, Capital and Machinery to increase productivity. In addition, through cooperatives members can easily set up consumer s cooperative shops form where they can buy goods to meet their financial needs cheaply. Other roles of cooperatives to economic development include. 1) Consumers are protected from constant fluctuation in prices. The cooperatives can buy goods directly from farmers who are also members of the cooperatives and in firm sell to the other members; in this way, middlemen are eliminated. 2) Member can share from their annual profits. 3) Transfer of agricultural innovations is possible though cooperatives 4) Provision of some basic infrastructures for the use of members and more members is possible through cooperatives. More, contributions to overall rural development is possible through cooperatives. The specific objectives of this study include; 1) To assess the membership strength of a cooperative society in the study area. 2) To determine the contributions of cooperative society to economic development. 3) To identify the sources of credit and farm inputs for cooperative society in the study area. 4) To examine the problems facing this cooperative society in the study area. The hypothesis formulated for the study. H : There is no significant association between membership and non-membership if 0 1 cooperative society. H There is no significant relationship between respondents socio-economic 0 2 characteristics and their perceived contribution of cooperatives to economic development. METHODOLOGY AREA AND SCOPE OF STUDY This study was carried out in some communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. The major focus of this study was on the contributions of agricultural cooperative society to economic development. Ovia South West Local Government has its headquarters at Iguobazuwa. This Local Government area is comprised of one consistency with ten (10) wards representing one extension Block and ten(10) existing cells or villages. One Block overseas the extension methodology of ten (10) cells in this study area. Both primary and secondary data source were used in obtaining information for this study, primary data and secondary data source were used in obtaining information for this study. Primary data source used was through structured questionnaire carefully designed to address the specific objectives of this study, secondary data source include: browsing through the internet, Journals, publications and past students thesis and text books. A total of Sixty-three (63) questionnaire were administered and retrieved for data analysis. Both descriptive statistics used include frequency table and percentages, the two (2) hypothesis formulated were analyzed by use of Pearson correlation coefficient (r). RESULTS OF FINDINGS Tables I, II, III, IV, V, VI AND VII show the summary of results obtained from this study on contributions of Agricultural cooperative society to economic development in some selected communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Table 1: Socio-Economic Characteristics of respondents S/NO SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONDENTS FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE 1 Gender Male Female AGE (YEARS)

3 African Journal of Agricultural Research and Development, Volume 3, Number 3, > MARITAL STATUS Single Married Widowed Divorced EDUCATIONAL LEVEL No formal Education Primary Education Secondary Education OND HND/B.Sc OCCUPATION STATUS Farmers Business Women Civil Servants Pensioners MEMBERSHIP SIZE RANGE 20 and below and above TABLE II: Membership Strength of Cooperative Society Interviewed TABLE III: Schedule of Meetings by Cooperative Society Interviewed TABLE IV: State. Sources of Credit to Cooperative Society in Ovia South West Local Government of Edo SOURCES OF CREDIT FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Commercial Banks Personal savings Esusu Special Deposits Thrift savings and share capital Source: Field survey,

4 Contributions of Agricultural Co-operative Society to Economic Development in some Communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria Table V: Sources of Farm Inputs to Cooperative Society Interviewed in Ovia South West Local Government, Edo State MEETING SCHEDULE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Regular Not-regular SOURCES OF FARM INPUTS FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE ADP Open market Neigbours farm Table VI: Contributions of Cooperative Society to Economic Development in Ovia South West Local Government of Edo State. CONTRIBUTIONS PF COOPERATIVE SOCIETY MEAN X STANDARD DEVIATION (SD) Assist in Agricultural development 3.71* Create employment opportunities 3.43* Assist farmers in marketing of farm produce 3.41* Contribute to profit making business 3.17* Grant loans to members and non-members 3.05* Table VII: Problems Affecting Cooperative Society in Ovia South West Local Government of Edo State: PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED AFFECTING COOPERATIVE Frequency PERCENTAGE SOCIETY INTERVIEWED Inadequate finance/credit Political instability/frequent changes in government policies Lack of education on cooperative matters/informal education Lack of monitoring/evaluation Lack of competent leadership in management of cooperative Source: FieldSurvey, 2009 DISCUSSIONS OF RESULTS Table 1 above presents the results obtained on Personal Socio-economic characteristics of respondents interviewed for this survey. It showed that 68.3% of the respondents are male, the relative frequency is 68 while 31.7% are female. This implies that majority of male farmers are usually engaged in farming as their primary occupation. Table I equally revealed that 42.9% of respondents fell into the age bracket of years. 20.6% of respondents age lies between years, 25.4% had their age between years while about 1.6% representing only 1 respondent had his age above 70 years. This implies that about 88.9% of the farmers interviewed were actively participating in farming in Ovia South West Local Government with the remaining being civil servants. In terms of Educational level the study on table 1 showed that 8 out of 63 respondents representing 12.7% had on formal Education, 11.1% had just primary education, 41.8% had secondary education, 23.8% had OND while the remaining 11.1% of the respondents in reviewed had HND. Table II presents data on membership strength of the Cooperative society. It showed that 17 respondents had membership whose range in size was 20 and below representing 27%. 16 (25.4%) had membership size range of 21 30, 11 (17.5%) had membership size range of 31 40, while remaining 19(30.2%) had membership size range of above 40 members. In terms of schedule of meetings, this result was presented on table III. 39

5 African Journal of Agricultural Research and Development, Volume 3, Number 3, 2010 It showed that 43 respondents (68.3%) claimed their society held regular meetings at least once in a month, 20 respondents (31.7%) claimed that the society meetings were not held on regular basis. Table IV and V above present results obtained on sources of credit and sources of farm inputs to the cooperative society surveyed. It showed that 33(52.4%) of respondents got their credit form commercial banks, 14(22.2%) got credit from personal savings, 6(9.5%) got credit from Esusu, 5(7.9%) got credit from special deposits, while the remaining 5(7.9%) claimed they obtained credit from thrift savings and share capitals contributed by members. In terms of farm inputs sources, 20 (31.7%) of the respondents, got farm inputs from Edo ADP, 28(44.4%) obtained farms inputs form open markets. While 15(23.8%) of the respondents sources their farm inputs from neighbor s farm. Table VI presents data on the contributions of this Agricultural Cooperative to economic development. It implies that cooperative society plays a vital role to economic and agricultural deployment of Ovia South West L.G.A. of Edo State in terms of creation of employment opportunities for youths/young school leavers in the area, assisting farmers in marketing their farm produce, through granting of loans to members and non-members as well as assisting farmers in profit making for their businesses. Table VII above highlighted the major problems encountered by this cooperative surveyed society in Ovia South West L.G.A. of Edo State to include; 19 (30.2%) confirmed it was due to inadequate credit/finance. 8 (12.2%) confirmed that it was due to political instability/frequent changes in government policies. 15 (25.2%) confirmed it was due to lack of cooperative education for members. 7(11.1%) confirmed it was due to lack of monitoring and evaluation. 14(20.6%) confirmed it was due to lack of competent leadership in cooperative matters. CONCLUSION The study was designed to examine the contributions of Agricultural cooperative society to economic development in some communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State. A summary of the findings showed that: 1. 15% of respondents have no formal education, 22.2% had just primary education, 41.3% had secondary education, 23.8% had National Diploma (OND) certificate, while remaining 11.1% of the respondents surveyed had Higher National Diploma. 2. The major problems encountered by this cooperative society are inadequate finance credit facilities to expand their farm businesses, lack of education on cooperative issues by cooperators themselves, political instability and frequent changes in Government policies as well as lack of competent leadership in cooperative management. Finally, based on the findings above, it was find out that Agricultural cooperative society contributed immensely to economic development especially in the area of assisting producers/farmers who are also members of cooperative in marketing their produce. These findings agree with that of Agbonrofo (2006). RECOMMENDATIONS In the light of the above findings, the following were the recommendations advanced by the researchers. 1. Cooperative society in Ovia South West Local Government Area in Edo State should be encouraged by government by empowering the cooperators through more credit facilities, provisions of mobility and good roads for easy transportation of their farm produce to market and final consumers. 2. Cooperative society should be given ore subsides by the government to enable them produce farm inputs such as fertilizers, seeds and agrochemicals from ADPS. 3. The cooperative members should be trained regularly through seminar/workshops on cooperative matters with necessary guidelines for successful managing of their cooperative society. 4. The cooperative members should be encouraged to go on in-service training in cooperative colleges in some parts of Nigeria to improve their level of literacy and enhance their cooperative education periodically. REFERENCES Agbonrofo, F (2006): The Cooperative Principles and Practice in Nigeria, Pages 9, 11, 14, and 15. Anyanwu, A. C et. al, (2007): Agricultural Science/Economic. Agricultural Marketing and Agricultural Cooperative Nigeria. PP

6 Contributions of Agricultural Co-operative Society to Economic Development in some Communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria David, J. A (1979): Cooperative systems in Nigeria. Pp Ijere, M.O. (1992): Cooperative in everyday life. Falludu Publishing Company, Nsukka, Nigeria. Ijere, M.O. (1992b): Prospects of Nigeria cooperatives, Accra Publishers, Enugu, Nigeria. International Labour Organization (ILO) (1964): The role cooperative plays in the economic and social development of developing countries. Okereke, O. et. al, (1979): An assessment of cooperatives project in past development plans of the federation of Nigeria and suggestion for the fourth development plan Nigeria. :Journal of Cooperative Studies Vol. 1, PP Olumese, M.I. (2004): The cooperative movement and livestock development in Edo State, Nigeria published B.Sc. project submitted to Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension Services, University of Benin City. PP , 41. Onah, J.O. (1994): Agricultural Marketing on Nigeria, Experience in a developing economy. 41