EFFECTS OF WOMENS’ INVOLVEMENT IN COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES ON INCOME OF GROUNDNUT PROCESSORS IN AGRICULTURAL ZONE I AREA OF NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the effects of cooperative societies on women involvement in groundnut processing in Agricultural Zone I of Niger State, Nigeria using a sample of 205 groundnut processors 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 groundnut processors. 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 ( ̅ =4.65), acquisition of skills and training ( ̅ =4.39), availability of processing inputs ( ̅ =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 cooperative societies. However, high cost of fuel wood ( ̅ =2.76), high cost of processing equipment ( ̅ =2.56), Inadequate capital ( ̅ =2.49) are the major constraints experienced by women groundnut processors. 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 groundnut processors 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 cooperative societies.