ABSTRACT
The study assessed the role of cooperative societies on women involvement in groundnut processing in Zuru Local Government of Kebbi State, Nigeria using a sample of 205 farmers randomly selected using Taro Yamane formula at 5% error tolerance and 95% level of confidence from the study area. Specifically, the study described the socio- economic characteristics of respondents, assessed their level of involvement in cooperative activities, determined their outputs and income, examined effect of cooperative societies on groundnut processing, determined benefits derived from cooperative societies, examined factors influencing women involvement in cooperative and identify constraints faced by farmers. Instrument used for data collection was primarily questionnaire while data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ordered logit regression, Kendal‟s coefficient of concordance and multiple regression. Findings indicate that mean age of respondents was 43 years, majorities (88.8%) were married, and 59.3% had formal education and a mean household size of 10 persons. Majority had access to trainings (71.2%) and mean of 12.9 processing experience years. 74.2% had access to credit which about (40%) is from cooperative societies, and (60%) purchase groundnuts from market. Majority of the respondents‟ participated in cooperative activities in which attending meetings (96.6%) ranked first, 80.5% saved to raise share and 74.2% saved money together. More than half of respondents (56.1%) had medium level of involvement in cooperative activities with average annual income of above ₦400,000 and process groundnut into cake and oil. Access to information (𝑋̅ =4.65), acquisition of skills and training (𝑋̅ =4.39), availability of processing inputs (𝑋̅ =4.22) are benefits derived from cooperative societies. The results of the regression indicates that age (β = -.147616, P<0.01), household size (β =.0740513, P<0.01), experience (β = .0606943, P<0.05), access to trainings (β = .919835, P<0.01), access to credit(β = . 919835, P<0.05), amount of credit received (β = 5.91e-06, P<0.05) , labour employed (β = -.8208339, P<0.10) and amount invested (β = 5.26e-06, P<0.01) significantly influenced the level of women involvement in farming.
However, high cost of fuel wood (𝑋̅ =2.76), high cost of processing equipment (𝑋̅ =2.56),
Inadequate capital (𝑋̅ =2.49) are the major constraints experienced by women farmers. The result of Pearson correlation showed that age (r= -0.2553; ρ=0.01) and experience (r= -0.1774; ρ= 0.01) had significant relationship between and of respondents and their level of involvement in cooperative activities. The Z-test result shows significant difference in income (t= 6.6092) and output (t= 5.5721) of respondents before and after joining cooperative societies. The study recommended that alternative methods should be made available for women farmers in order to reduce over-dependence on fuel wood, older women should be encouraged to join cooperative in order to increase their output and it is therefore necessary to encourage women participation through incentive supports in order to increase their level of involvement in farming.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
• Background of the Study
(National Agricultural Extension and Research Liason Services (NAERLS), 2011).
In Nigeria, women occupy a dominant place in the socio-economic life of the nation. There is increasing realization of the essential role of women in agriculture and food production and the fact that the empowerment of women is necessary for achieving sustainable development (Shuaibu, 2015). In order to mitigate the adverse effect of poverty and contribute to the care and upkeep of members of their families, Nigerian women are engaged in a variety of income earning as a way of improving their livelihoods, and such activities include groundnut processing (Nwachukwu and Jibowo, 2000; Shuaibu, 2015). Though, there is little participation of women in groundnut production, they are actively involved in local groundnut processing activities. Women are said to be involved in over 95 percent of groundnut milling activities in Zuru Local Government of Kebbi State (Abba et al., 2011; Mohammed, 2014). Thus, to sustain their participation in this enterprise, it is important that women are organized into cooperative societies, to further enhance their empowerment drive.
Empowerment has always been fundamental to the cooperative idea. It enables weaker section of the people to get together in order to achieve goals that women would not be able to achieve on their own. Agricultural cooperative societies in Nigeria perform multipurpose functions such as marketing of produce, provision of production inputs, and provision of loans amongst others.
According to International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) (2007) and Abdul (2017), cooperative is an autonomous association of persons unified voluntarily to meet common economic, social and cultural needs through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. Abdul (2017), emphasized that rural cooperatives including farmers cooperative plays important roles in mobilizing and distributing credit to the farmers, providing members with a wide range of services such as transportation of produce, product storage, input distribution and dissemination of information on modern practices in agriculture.
Statement of the Research Problem
In spite of the seeming popularity of cooperative societies, it is generally believed that some women are unaware of the various opportunities open to them via cooperative activities. Women's lack of access to resources is also a major stumbling block which affects their participation in existing cooperatives and setting up of new ones.
Due to the fact that they are unable to participate in cooperatives, they are deprived from the benefits that cooperatives and their support structures often provide to members such as credit, education and training, production inputs, technology and marketing outlets
The proliferation of small scale industries with cutting edge technologies is essential to ensure that these benefits are achievable but then, the use of these technologies is greatly underscored by the lack of access to these technologies particularly for the women. Studies have also shown that rural women are usually disadvantaged in their access to all factors of production and processing in spite of their involvement in farming generally (Bello et al., 2016). Oladeji and Thomas (2010) also highlighted poor electricity supply, high cost of petrol, lack of credit facilities, high purchasing price of technologies and lack of operational facilities for processing as the major constraints faced by women processors. According to Wanyeki (2003), existing statutory and customary laws limit women‟s access to land and other types of property in most countries in Africa and about half the countries in Asia. This is indeed a source for concern for developing countries where women play active roles in production and processing as the lack of access to productive resources create grievous consequences for usage.
Despite the huge benefits that cooperatives can offer to women and the likely challenges that can hinder the participation of women in cooperative activities, it appears that there still exist some gap in the effect of cooperative societies on women involvement in groundnut processing activities as well as in challenges faced by women in participation in cooperative activities in Zuru LGA of Kebbi State, Nigeria.
1.3 Research Questions
• What are the socio-economic characteristics of women farmers in the study area?
• What are the levels of involvement of women farmers in cooperative societies activities in the study area?
• What are the factors influencing involvement of women farmers in cooperative societies?
• What are the outputs and income of women farmers in the study area?
• What are the role of cooperative societies on groundnut processing?
• What are the benefits derived by women farmers participating in cooperative societies in the study area?
• What are the constraints faced by women farmers in cooperative societies in the study area?
Aim and Objectives of the Study
The general objective of the study is to assess the role of cooperative societies on women‟s involvement in groundnut processing in the study area. The specific objectives of the study were to:
• describe the socio-economic characteristics of women farmers in the study area.
• assess the levels of women involvement in farming activities in the study area.
• examine the factors influencing involvement of women farmers in cooperative societies.
• determine the outputs and income of women farmers in the study area.
• examine the role of cooperative societies on groundnut processing.
• determine the benefits derived by women farmers participating in cooperative societies.
• examine the constraints faced by women farmers in cooperative societies in the study area.
Hypotheses of the Study
H01: There is no significant relationship between selected socio-economic variables of the respondents such as (age, household size, years of experience, marital status, educational level, credit, extension contact) and their level of involvement in farming.
H02: There is no significant difference between outputs and income from groundnut processing before and after joining cooperative societies.
Significance of the Study
Opportunities in food processing are enormous; this re-echoes the position of Ihekoronye and Uzomah (2011) who are of the opinion that food processing brings wide range of benefits to enterprising people in developing countries. This study is justified by the fact that women cooperative society is an agent of rural development as they help in empowering rural women thereby improving on their livelihood. This account for the Federal Government adaptation of the Cooperative Revitalization Programme (CRP) as one of the tools for improving agricultural sector in order to achieve the goals food security and national development (Mohammed 2014).
The findings from this study would assist the policy makers in making the appropriate policies that will increase income from groundnut processing and formulate effective strategies for rural women towards improving quality of living with specific focus on groundnut processing. The results of socioeconomic characteristics of women processors will provide insight on socioeconomic characteristics and institutional factors affecting processors‟ level of involvement in farming and this will enable the extension agents to work assiduously on how women processors can be improved upon. It is expected that findings from this study will contribute to poverty reduction by enhancing income earning opportunities for poor people through processing of groundnut. Information on factors influencing involvement of women in cooperative societies will assist the researchers to have adequate knowledge on factors influencing knowledge level thereby working on how women processors knowledge can be improved upon through proper enlightenment. The result of effect of cooperative societies on groundnut processing will give insight to researchers and policy makers on the effect of cooperative societies on groundnut processing on improved income and livelihood of processors, this will enable the extension agents reach out to women processors on the needs to involve in cooperative societies. Information on constraints mitigating level of women processors involvement in farming will assist extension agents and the researchers to understand the problems currently militating women processors in the involvement of cooperative in order to tackle them for women processors benefit.
Similarly, the finding from this research could be used as a basis for future studies by researchers and a various institution of higher learning. Generally, this study aimed to contribute to the body of knowledge that will enhance policy recommendations on effect of cooperative societies on women involvement in groundnut processing.
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