Impact of Cooperative Societies on Rural Farming in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the contribution of cooperative societies to rural farming in Ido local government area of Oyo State, Nigeria. Data were obtained from 60 farmers using the multistage sampling technique and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regressions. The result showed that 55% of the respondents fall within the age bracket of 20-29 years while 58.3% were females. The regression result showed that the source of credit, the amount borrowed, and usage of the loan with a p-value of the amount borrowed (0.0244), usage of loan obtained (0.0042), and constraints encountered by farmers (0.0039) have a significant impact on agricultural production. Results showed that 10.0% of the respondents sourced the credit for agricultural production from contributions while 45.0% of the respondents sourced their credit from cooperative societies. 16.7% of the respondent obtains loans less than ₦50,000 while 78.3% of the respondents used the loan obtained for farming. (71.6%) had a major constraint to obtaining loans as a lack of guarantors. It is therefore recommended that the government should support agricultural cooperatives with a regulatory and administrative framework to ensure satisfactory service delivery to the societies.