SOURCE:

Faculty: Management Sciences
Department: Co-opreative Economics And Management

CONTRIBUTORS:

Chijioke-Okoro, C. G.
Nwankwo, F. O.

ABSTRACT:

This study on Agricultural Cooperatives and Members’ Income Generation in Imo State, Nigeria, was necessitated by the persistent challenge of poor income from the agricultural sector which shoulders the responsibility of providing employment for over 70% of the country’s large population. Since agricultural cooperatives have been providing services to their members, it is imperative to determine the proportion of members’ total income that is attributable to such services. This study therefore aims at examining the influence of cooperative services such as; credit, farm input supply, processing, marketing, and extension services on members’ income generation. The study selected a sample size of 378 from a population of 7012 members of all agricultural cooperatives in Imo state using multistage sampling technique. A well structured five-point Likert scale questionnaire capturing the questions raised in the research questions and hypotheses was designed to elicit raw data from the sample. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, standard deviations and mean) to answer the research questions and inferential statistics (Regression Analysis) to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that agricultural cooperative services generally have significant influence on members’ income generation in Imo state (F = 401.339, p > 0.00, with R2 Value of 81%). Cooperative credit services and cooperative farm input supply services significantly and positively influenced members’ income (t = 11.435, p > 0.00 and t = 7.873, p > 0.00 respectively); however, cooperative processing and marketing services did not significantly influence members’ income (t = 0.944, p ˂ 0.346), while cooperative extension services significantly but negatively influenced members’ income (t = –11.262, p > 0.00). The study concluded that cooperative members’ agricultural income was boosted to about 81% of their total income, due to the services they enjoyed from agricultural cooperatives. It was recommended that government should partner with other stakeholders in providing soft and flexible credit services, adequate storage facilities and regular extension services to members of agricultural cooperatives to boost the nation’s overall agricultural income.