economic analysis of cooperative societies and agricultural productivity in rural households in delta state, nigeria

The study assessed rural household participation in co-operatives on rural household agricultural productivity. the sampling technique used was a multistage procedure to randomly select 120 co-operators and non-cooperators respectively. but only 115 co-operators and non-cooperators were utilized. the active mean age was 42 years and married farmers co-operatives (62.6%); farmers non-cooperatives (55.7%) rural households with secondary educational level farmers co-operatives (42.6%); farmers non-cooperatives (24.4%) obtained their sources of credit facilities from co-operatives. the study revealed that most rural households engaged in livestock and crop production obtained their sources of credit from co-operatives. it was discovered that rural households have constraints in obtaining credits from conventional banks (mean=1.7). the study recommends that policies should be inclined towards agricultural co-operatives to increase food productivity and food security. again, that there should be an enabling law to enforce the conventional banks to provide soft loans via rural households’ co-operatives for their farming activities.