ABSTRACT
The study examined the Performance
of Farmers’ Multipurpose Cooperative Societies (FMCS) in Enugu North
Agricultural zone of Enugu State, Nigeria. Purposive and proportional sampling
techniques were used to collect primary data from 30 FMCS through their chairmen.
The analytical techniques involved both descriptive and inferential statistics.
It was revealed that 46.7% of the cooperative had between 31 and 50 members
(i.e. cooperators). About 47% of FMCS had less than N 200,000.00 annual
savings from members. About 37% of the selected FMCS had between 16 and 20
years of existence (i.e. cooperative age). The greatest percentage (93.3%) of
the selected FMCS was registered with the appropriate Government agency. About
43% of the FMCS had a total share of not more than N 1,000,000.00. Many
of the FMCS (60%) in the study area received assistance one time or the other
from government. Majority of the leaders of FMCS (73.3%) were males and 83.3%
of them had formal education. It was revealed that 33.3% of the selected FMCS
had good performance, 40% of them performed poorly and 26.7% of the FMCS
performed moderately. The multinomial logit regression analysis comparing
moderate performance as base outcome, showed that cooperative years of
existence (i.e. cooperative age) , and years of formal education of the
chairmen had positive and significant relationship with good/high performance
at (p<0.001) and (p<0.0.05) respectively. Government assistance had
negative and significant relationship with poor/low performance of the FMCS at
(p<.0.05). The study also looked into the constraints hindering effective
performance of FMCS in the study area. These constraints were inadequate
storage facilities, inadequate capital, inadequate commitment of members, too
much intervention of Government and poor management by officials among others.
Therefore, any assistance inform of training and other support from government
and NGOs should be based on the issue of years of existence of the FMCS and not
on political affiliations as it seems to be presently for the FMCS to perform
optimally in the study area.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
Agriculture
constitutes a significant sector of Nigeria’s economy. The sector is
significant in terms of employment of labour, contribution to Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and until early 1970, agricultural exports were the main sources
of foreign exchange earnings (Amaza, 2002). During the 1960’s the growth of the
Nigerian economy was derived mainly from the agricultural sector. However, in
more recent years, there has been a marked deterioration in the performance of
Nigeria’s agriculture. The contribution of agriculture to the GDP which stood
at an average of 56% in 1960 – 1964 declined to 47% in 1965, 1969 and more
rapidly to 32% in 1996 – 1998 (Amaza, 2002).
Smallholder
agriculture is the dominant occupation of rural Nigerians. The rural dwellers
earn low income from their economic activities and as a result they save less.
Low savings bring about low investment which leads to low capital formation
(Umebali, 2004). Based on the foregoing, the rural dwellers are poor (Umebali,
2004). Evidence in Nigeria reveals that the number of those in poverty is on
the increase. The number of those in poverty increased from 27% in 1980 to 46%
in 1985. It declined slightly to 42% in 1992. In 1999, it was estimated that
more than 70% of Nigerians lived in poverty (Ogwumike, 2005). Therefore,
reducing rural poverty has been on the agenda of international development
agencies as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations for a long
time.
It
should however, be noted that poverty is largely caused by inadequate access to
productive resources such as land for the majority of producers and low
productivity of agriculture resulting in low levels of income. The formation of
cooperative societies has since
Different
authors and agencies have defined cooperatives in different ways, For instance,
the Federal Department of Cooperatives in its official newsletter
“AGRICOOP-101”, writes that a cooperative society is a voluntary association of
persons having a mutual interest in providing themselves some needed services
on a non-profit basis. It further adds that a cooperative society is organized
as a legal entity to accomplish an economic objective through joint
participation of its members. Chukwu (1990) defines cooperative as a
democratically controlled business i.e. it is owned and controlled by the
members and gives benefits to the members. The International Cooperative
Alliance (ICA, 2010) defined a cooperative as “an autonomous association of
persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural
needs and aspirations through a jointly – owned and democratically controlled
enterprise”.
The
definitions of cooperative societies are often supplemented with the
distinguishing features of seven cooperative principles adopted by ICA. These
are: voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic
participation, autonomy and independence, education, training and information,
cooperation among cooperatives , and concern for community. Cooperative
societies function on the basis of the values of self-help,
self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the
tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values
of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others (ICA, 1995).
The
Agricultural cooperative organization in contemporary Nigeria, is geared
towards increasing production by the utilization of mechanized agriculture
through the village group farming cooperative (Arua, 1988). The cooperative
movement is significant both in terms of....
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