Contributions of Cooperative Societies to Agricultural Livelihood Activities of Female Farmers in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed contributions of women cooperative societies to agricultural livelihood activities of female farmers’ in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select one hundred (100) respondents’ for the study. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire, and analyzed using frequency counts, percentages and mean scores, while ANOVA was used to test the null hypothesis at 5% level of significance. The result revealed that borrowing from informal money lending institutions (3.20), retained earnings (3.13), membership fee (2.92) and borrowing from microfinance banks (2.65) were the major avenues through which funds are raised by the women cooperative societies. The result also revealed that subsidizing the price of agricultural raw materials to cooperative women members (3.19), bulk buying of essential inputs such as seed, fertilizer and pesticides and sale to members at a price below the price they would pay alone (3.13) and renting out machinery and implements to members at affordable prices (3.00) were the major forms of contributions of women cooperative societies to agricultural livelihood activities of female farmers in the study area. The ANOVA result showed that there were significant differences in the mean ratings of respondents on the contributions of women cooperative societies to agricultural livelihood activities at 1% level. The study concluded that women cooperative societies contributed significantly to the agricultural livelihood activities of women farmers. The study therefore, recommended the need for government to provide credit facilities to the women cooperatives at a reduced/no interest rate in order to boost agricultural livelihood activities and increase agricultural productivity.