ABSTRACT

The work considered the determinants of output of members of agricultural cooperatives in Ikwuano local government area of Abia state, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to identity the socio economic characteristics of the aricultura1 cooperative members in Ikwuano LGA, to identity the various agricultural production activities engaged by the respondents, to determine factors influencing output of members of agricultural cooperatives and to examine! identify the constraints to production. A multistage sampling technique was used in the selection of samples for this study. Data was collected with the aid of well structured questionnaire and was analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as frequency table; means, percentage and OLS multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that majority of the respondents (45%) fell under the middle age bracket (20-39yrs) and about 60% are male. The result also showed that 58% were married with only 25% single. In terms of education, majority (4 1.7%) attained secondary education and 55% have house hold size ranging between 4 and 6. More than half of the respondents (53.3%) have farm size smaller than 1 hectare. About 68.3% of the respondents received credit and about (50%) received income below N5 0,000. According to the results, 66% of the respondents engaged in crop sector of agriculture and the rest (34%) in livestock production. According to the regression result, age, educational qualification, household size, form size, farming experience, amount of credit received and non-farm income were found to have significant effects on the output of Agricultural cooperative members. Land availability, lack of capital, poor quality land, high cost of farm inputs, pest and diseases, were identified as constraints of agricultural output of cooperative members. The study therefore recommends that since the output of cooperative members are high, farmers should be encouraged to join cooperative societies and extension should be sent to the study areas to improve the knowledge of cooperative farmers (members) on modern farming practices.