1.1 Introduction
Agricultural cooperatives agent help farmers increase their yields and incomes by pooling their resources to support collective service provisions and economic empowerment. Cooperative societies constitute the most important aspects of agriculture rural development. The purpose of agricultural cooperatives is to help farmers increase their yields and incomes by pooling their resources to support collective service provisions and economic empowerment. Given their primary remit to contribute to smallholder farmer production, agricultural cooperatives are seen as critical in achieving the government’s development targets in the Growth and Transformation Plan, and focusing on other types of cooperatives requires an alternative framework for analysis.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Co-operative society is a vital issue in every community in this world. In which place where it has been properly put into effective operation, its members have greatly achieved something from it. Gboko Local Government area is one of the areas where co-operative societies have improved the lives of its citizens. A cooperative is a pan-humane business organization formed by individuals who are desirous of pooling themselves and their resources together to form a democratically controlled organization devoid of pecuniary gain. The uniqueness of cooperative and it’s flexibility permits it to be practiced among farmers, fishermen, Artisans, Industrial and commercial workers, drivers, students, market men and women etc.
Osy Obodechi (2006) cooperative may be defined as a voluntary association of persons grappling with the same socio-economic problems and legally constituted to serve the economic needs of its members democratically, providing services at cost or and sharing benefits in proportion to use. Cooperative society helped farmers in numerous ways by providing agricultural equipments, machines and tools to achieve greater out in agricultural farm produce in the rural areas.
The need to develop the rural area has received the attention of many experts and researchers as well as the government in recent times. This is because rural areas constitute a large population with serious bottlenecks to the socio-economic development of the country as well as the communities. Rural development according to Atkinson (2018) involves efforts that are economic and social in nature intended to encourage concepts of retention, growth and expansion in areas outside cities including improving quality of life for rural residents through such activities. Therefore, rural development is an integrative activity involving the implementation of programmes of agriculture, health, education, home management, provision of infrastructure and other community based facilities under the supervision of the government, its agencies and the local people. Cooperative society is one of the principal agents of rural development. It is not only an avenue for job opportunities, but also as a training ground for the rural dwellers and other society and economic benefits. Hence, it is a strong factor in the nation's economic development.
Calvert (2019) defines co-operative society as an association of persons who have voluntarily joined together as human beings based on equality for the promotion of economic interests of themselves. On the other hand it could be seen as a voluntarily association of persons having mutual ownership in providing themselves some needed service on non-profit basis usually organized as a legal entity to accomplish objectives through joint participation of its members. As it is, the problem faced by the rural dwellers in Nigeria today is complex. It is those in the rural areas who have to produce not only enough for their families but also for industries and urban population. They also have to produce cash crops either for processing by local industries or for export. Still they lack the basic necessities of life.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Role of Cooperative Societies in the Provision of Agro-processing Facilities in Rural Areas.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the greatest problems confronting rural development today is the lopsided and unbalanced development of their environment and how best to improve the living standard of the rural dwellers. Inspite of all the orchestrated policies and programmes of successive governments in Nigeria, the problem of rural backwardness and under - development has remained unresolved.
This is evident in the persistence of agriculture stagnation, hunger, poverty, disease, unemployment, poor housing, under-employment, poor infrastructural facilities. Most of our rural areas also suffer from inadequacy of social services, high birth rate and death rate, low life expectancy, malnutrition and illiteracy, lack of productive, technical and managerial skill to improve production.
In the light of these problems, the researcher is therefore bothered and wants to probe into the activities of co-operative societies to know whether they are contributing towards the development of our rural areas with a particular focus on Okpe Local government area of Delta State. The researcher also intends to investigate the impact of co-operative societies on rural development by identifying the above mentioned phenomenon and to know the Problems and prospects encountered by co-operative societies in their attempt to develop the rural areas.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to analyze the Role of Cooperative Societies in the Provision of Agro-processing Facilities in Rural Areas. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To find out the extent to which co-operative societies have contributed to the provision of agro-processing facilities in Okpe Local government Area;
- To assess the impact of the strategies designed and adopted by cooperative societies in rural development in Okpe Local Government Area;
- To examine the ways of improving the provision of agro-processing facilities to co-operative societies in Okpe Local Government Area; and
- To examine the financial problems affecting the contribution of cooperative societies to the development of Okpe Local Government Area.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- To what extent do co-operative societies contribute to the development of rural areas in Okpe local Government Area?
- How does the financial problem of co-operative societies affect the provision of agro-processing facilities to rural areas in Okpe local Government Area?
- What are the ways of improving the provision of agro-processing facilities to cooperative societies in Okpe Local Government Area?
- What is the impact of the strategies adopted by cooperative societies on the development of rural areas in Okpe local Government Area?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: Cooperative societies have no positive contribution to the provision of agro-processing facilities to rural areas in Okpe local Government Area.
- H1: Cooperative societies have positive contribution to the provision of agro-processing facilities to rural areas in Okpe local Government Area.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: The strategies adopted by cooperative societies have no impact on the provision of agro-processing facilities to rural areas in Okpe local Government Area.
- H1: The strategies adopted by cooperative societies have impact on the provision of agro-processing facilities to rural areas in Okpe local Government Area.
1.7 Significance of Study
This study when completed will be of great significance to the following people:
- Help in educating the farmers and the entire rural dwellers on the importance of co-operative societies. This means procuring and providing manure, seeds, pesticide and other agricultural Implements to farmers on hand which helps to solve many problems related to availability and procurement of inputs by small farmers.
- The general public would have gained a lot of knowledge on the importance of co-operative societies. It plays a critical role in building community wealth for several key reasons: They often provide quality goods and services to areas that have been shunned by traditional business because they are deemed less profitable markets.
- The study will be significant to future researchers on the facts of rural areas. This is considered being of noticeable importance in the country today than in the olden days in the process of the evolution of the nations. It is a strategy that tries to obtain an improved and productivity, higher socio-economic equality and ambition, and stability in social and economic development.
- The study will also help members of cooperative societies to discover problems of co-operative societies and provide recommendation to the problem identified. They should be strict supervision of loan takers and they should be made to comply as necessary.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Analysis of the Role of Cooperative Societies in the Provision of Agro-processing Facilities in Rural Areas using Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Cooperative: It means the relationship between individual people or cooperative organizations united together to help themselves through mutual action.
Rural Urban Migration: This also means urban rush the movement of people from rural areas to urban areas may be due to the problem of electricity or lack of job and good roads.
