ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN THE SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL ZONE OF NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the performance of agricultural cooperative societies in the Southern Agricultural Zone of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The main objective was to assess the performance of agricultural cooperative societies in the Southern Agricultural zone of Nasarawa State. Multistage sampling procedure was used to draw 150 cooperative society members as study sample. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data on the membership and activities of the cooperative societies. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistical tools. The descriptive statistics used were percentages, mean scores, ranking and weighted mean. Results showed the mean age of respondents was 40.5 years. Majority 68 % of the respondents were married. About 87.3.0% of the respondents had some form of formal education while only 12.7% of the respondents had no formal education. The mean agricultural enterprise experience of respondents was 12.5 years. The mean annual income of farmers in the study area was N411, 300:00. The mean years of cooperative membership was 5 years. The mean size of cooperative society membership in the study area was 25 members. The mean annual savings of members in the study area was N383, 533:00. The predominant core activities of the cooperative societies were savings mobilization and loan disbursement 69.3%, group farming activities 55.3% and farm inputs supply to members 44.7%. The level of performance of cooperatives showed that EXCO were rated high in the following areas: administrative competence x =3.3 accountability and transparency x =3.2 and level of cooperation among members x =3.2. Members derived benefits of cooperative societies in members of cooperative societies derived benefits in the following areas: Opportunity for savings 93.3%, easy access to credit 90.8% and information sharing among members 81.7%. The major constraints faced were lack of government support/donor agencies with a x =3.50 poor supervision by government with a x =3.30 and poor transportation with a x =3.30. It was recommended that government/donor agencies should provide support in terms of storage and processing facilities, transportation/good road network. Also cooperative societies should be supervised by the government/donor agencies. It was therefore concluded that organize effort to mobilize rural farmers for cooperative spirit in the study area to increase access to fund and farm inputs supply to reduce poverty.