Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Poverty Reduction among Members in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract:

This study investigated the link between agricultural cooperative and rural poverty reduction among members in Ekiti State. Primary data from the 330 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to rural farmers in the study area. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics, spearman correlation and paired sample T-Test to test the formulated hypotheses of the study at the 5% level. Results from the data analyzed shows that the correlation matrix between the variables (cooperative marketing, cooperative credit extension and cooperative farm input supply) revealed positive coefficient values of 0.111, 0.151 and 0.372 respectively. The implication of this is that there exists a significant positive relationship between the dependent and independent variables in the study area. This also explains that cooperative marketing, cooperative credit extension and cooperative farm input supply will help in reducing poverty in the study area. The study recommended that government should improve on the road infrastructure in the rural areas to create easy transportation of agricultural produce to city centers to further enhance rural income, government and relevant agencies are advised to make prompt and low interest rate credit facility available for farm business and should provide farmers with the needed input to boost farm business which can aid employment creation and also provide the farmers with the technical know-how through trainings and seminars on the use of implements/inputs that can be helpful to their farming.