Cooperative Membership By Rural Women Farmers In Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined cooperative membership by rural women farmers and agricultural production in Cross River State, Nigeria with the following specific objectives: analyze the socio-economic characteristics of rural women in the area, describe the determinants of participation by rural women farmers in cooperative societies in the area and describe the factors affecting rural women farmers participation in cooperative societies in the area. A multistage sampling procedure was used in the selection of 180 respondents. Descriptive statistics and Logistic regression were employed to analyze the data of the study. Result of analysis showed that forty percent (40%) of the respondents aware of the existence of such society and literacy level (24.4%) respectively as major determinants of level of participation in cooperative society. Others like societal norm, farm business activities, membership formalities also determined participation in cooperative societies by rural women farmers in the area. Furthermore, result of the Logistic regression indicated that household size (1.5643), education (2.1777), access to cooperative society (1.5643), income of rural women farmers (1.4161) and business size (1.5460) where all positively signed and significant at different levels of significance. Eighty six percent of the variation in level of participation in cooperative society was explained by the explanatory variables in the model.Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made: extension services by government should be encouraged, rural women farmers should be accorded more education and training to create awareness for participation in cooperative societies, government should intervene in some obnoxious societal norms limiting rural women farmers socialization.