PERCEPTION OF FARMERS ON AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN CHANCHAGA LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MINNA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper investigated the perception of farmers on cooperatives in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. The objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondent, identify the various cooperative societies that exist in the study area, identify the perception of farmers on Agricultural cooperative societies, determine the factors influencing the participation of farmers in Agricultural co-operatives and identify problems militating against participation of farmers in different cooperative societies. A multistage random sampling technique was used in selecting 120 respondents for this study. Cross sectional data were collected with the aid of questionnaire complimented with interview schedule. Descriptive statistics and Logit regression were the tools used to achieve the data collected. The results revealed that 75% of the respondent were male, with a mean age of 40years, 53.3 % had household size of 11 and above while 28.3% had household size of 6 – 10. The study also revealed that majority (70.8%) of the respondents belonged to farmer producer cooperative while 22.5% belonged to farmer marketing cooperative. Farmers perceived Agricultural cooperative as a tool for promoting their good relations, bringing about innovations promotion of rural development and provision of services. Logit regression analysis result showed that the value of coefficient of determination R2 was 0.355303 (36%). Age, gender, household size, educational status and farm size were all significant at 1%, and directly related to factors influencing their participation in Agricultural cooperatives in the study area. However, most of these farmers are small scale farmers and have not been gaining enough access to credit facilities. It is therefore recommended from the result, that financial institution responsible for provision of funds should assist rural farmers by providing flexible credit facilities through cooperatives that will enhance more participation.