Socioeconomic Analysis of Rice Farmers and Effects of Group Formation on Rice Production in Ekiti and Ogun States of South-West Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the impact of farmers' membership of cooperative societies on rice production. Against the backdrop that the promotion of membership of cooperative society among farmers would give them better access to agricultural inputs and consequently improve their income. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select a total of 310 rice farmers. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and inferential statistics. The results revealed the mean age of the rice farmers as 48 years. Majority (92%) of the farmers produced upland rice, with a single harvest per year using mainly owned resources. Family labour was the most important source of farm labour in rice cultivation and about 60% of the members of the farm families participated in the family rice farm. The results further showed that 38.9% of rice farmers had primary education, 27.4% had secondary education, while 25.1% had no education. A total of 71% of the rice farmers were members of rice farmers' cooperative societies, while 29% were not. The average farm size cultivated was 1.72ha and 1.64ha for cooperative and non-cooperative members respectively. The result also showed that there is no significant difference in the gross margin per hectare realized by farmers that were cooperative members (N90, 222) and the non cooperative members (N92, 986). The input-use structure showed that cooperative members were more intensive users of purchased inputs like fertilizer and pesticides valued at N124,555 per ha (about 41% of variable cost) compared to the non cooperative members valued at N57,647 per ha (about 22% of the variable cost). Almost all the groups were established to serve as receptacles for subsidized agricultural services and inputs rather than real producer organizations that seek to attract commercial providers of services and ensure efficient marketing of their farm outputs. Further revelation from the study is the fact that membership of cooperative society was found to be influenced by household size, access to extension services, number of rice farms owned, access of rice farmers to herbicide and quantity of rice output. The non-significant difference in the gross margin of cooperative and non-cooperative members despite the greater intensity of use of purchased inputs (fertilizer and pesticide) by cooperative members suggests the need for monitoring of rice farmers who are cooperators in order to ensure that the substantial inputs are rightly channeled.

Impacts of Agricultural Cooperatives on Farmers’ Revenues in Cambodia: A Case Study of Tram Kak District, Takeo Province

“…Furthermore, the cooperatives have failed to provide better prices compared to other traders as they have small capital and the capability of the management committees is limited. This result is consistent with Afolami, Obayelu, Agbonlahor, and Lawal-Adebowale (2012), who also found no significant difference in yields between non-members and members of rice agricultural cooperatives in Nigeria. Similarly, Hoken and Su (2015) also found no significant difference in net income between participants and non-participants in rice-producing cooperatives in China.…”

“…10, No. 2;2018 with one percent increase in off-farm income, the probability of becoming a member of agricultural cooperatives decreases by 0.06 (holding all other variables constant). Farmers who have higher off-farm income are less likely to join the cooperatives because they are busy with off-farm jobs, and rice is not their main source of income.…”

Productivity of new rice for Africa under different contour patterns in northern Guinea Savanna of Kaduna State, Nigeria

“…However, very few (3%) of the respondents had tertiary education. This result is in agreement with Afolami et al (2012) who found that farmers in Nigeria were mostly illiterate. Household size distribution revealed that the respondents had a mean of large (11) persons in their households.…”

Enhancing Performance of Farmers’ Cooperative in Rice Innovation System in Enugu State, Nigeria

“…Also it could be due to popular use of group approach as key requirement for accessing supports from public, donors and nongovernmental organizations. According to Afolami et al, (2012) this has influenced the design of many programmes of assistance to smallholders in Nigeria to the extent that donors and Non Governmental Organisations have often made group formation a prerequisite for accessing project resources. …”

“…Farmers can realize the scale economies of bulk acquisition and enter into more stable trade agreement with suppliers or processors. ( Afolami, et al, 2012).…”