1.1 Introduction
According to Oseni (2007), poverty is a state of involuntarily deprivation to which a person, household, community or nation can be subjected to poverty is a condition in which one cannot generate sufficient income required to secure a minimum standard of living in a sustainable pattern. Poverty in Nigeria is caused by lack of employment, high rate of illiteracy among the citizenry, poor infrastructure, inadequate access to micro credit facilities, mismanagement of public funds, bad governance, instability of the governments and its policies (Oseni, 2007).
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, Limitations of the Study, Research Question and Hypothesis, and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Poverty has become a pervasive National and Global issue resulting from a state of short or long term deprivation and insecurity in basic human needs (Chambers, 1996; Mullen, 1996; Obadan, 2002). Poverty has also become a feature of the living conditions and life situation of the vast majority of Nigerians. The incidence of poverty in Nigeria was put at 28.8% in 1980, 46.3% in 1985, 42.7% in 1992 and 65.6% in 1996. In 2008, estimates from the National Bureau of Statistics put incidence of poverty at 54.4% (Fakoya, Banmeke, Ashimolowo, Fapojuwo 2010). Several evidences have suggested that majority of the world’s poor live and work in the rural area and that they would continue to do so in 2025 (IFAD, 2001).
Poverty gives rise to many other serious social problems, some of which, not only impose enormous economic and social costs upon the non- poor and society in general, but also threaten the survival and stability of the society. In these regards, the Federal Government of Nigeria had designed several programmes aimed at alleviating poverty and improving the living conditions of its people which include Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution, Structural Adjustment Programme, Better Life Programme and Family Support Programme, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). These programmes by the various governments of Nigeria were designed by policy makers and targeted at poverty alleviation in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the quality of life of majority of Nigerians had remained unenviable and embarrassingly low, despite the huge budgetary allocations by these governments to these poverty alleviation programmes (Orji, 2005). There is a need to identify other means of addressing the serious damage caused by poverty to the Nigerian society, attention should therefore be shifted to the use of self-help using Cooperative organizations formed and administered by the people.
Nigeria as a land filled with milk and honey suffers from the menace of poverty. Different questions have been asked to how poverty which is affecting the economy can be reduced to minimum. Several Government bodies have been setup to find a lasting solution to the problem striking the masses. However,it will be expedient to know what poverty is all about and to know the meaning of cooperative according to different scholars and join the two together to have a clearer understanding of the purpose of the study.
According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, Poverty is a state of being poor. It is the inability of a household to generate adequate income for the maintenance of the household.
Cooperatives have been dedicated to conducting business in a way now being recommended as the most effective route to transformational development: putting people in charge of their own destinies and helping them bring services to their communities; increasing decision making, trust and accountability through democratic participation; providing a profitable connection to the private sector; building and protecting assets at the community level; limiting the role of government; and working together to resolve problems.
A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, as well as cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise (COPAC, 1999). A Co-operative is a group-based and members-owned business that can be formed for economic and social development in any sector (Ohio Co-operative Development Centres (OCDC) 2007). According to DFID (2005), co- operatives have four main characteristics: first, they are formed by groups of people, who have a specified need or problem. Secondly, the organization is formed freely by members after contributing to its assets. Thirdly, the organization formed, is governed democratically in order to achieve desired objectives on equitable norms, and fourthly, it is an independent enterprise promoted, owned and controlled by people to meet their needs. Cooperatives provide self-employment through millions of worker-owners of production and service cooperatives; financial cooperatives mobilize capital for productive investment and provide people with secure institutions for the deposit of savings; consumer cooperatives provide households with affordable goods and services reducing the proportion of income used for basic living costs, and similarly user-owned cooperatives such as housing, utility, health and social care cooperatives provide affordable access to basic services.
Cooperative as socio-economic institutions through their activities could be a potent tool for poverty alleviation particularly in fighting poverty and unemployment. This could be in the area of agriculture, provision of infrastructural facilities and education.
Therefore, in Afikpo South L.G.A. Ebonyi State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect of Cooperative Society on Poverty Reduction among Rural Women Farmers.
1.2.1 Brief History of Afikpo South L.G.A.
Eddaland administratively designated by Nigeria as Afikpo South covers an entire local government area in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. It is the homeland of a culturally distinct people known as Eddics who are often misconstrued to be a sub-class of the dominant Igbo ethnic group of South East Nigeria. Eddic call their place Eddaland or just Edda. Outside Africa, Edda is more popularly associated with Icelandic Viking folklores and ancient Nordic mythology where Edda is considered a lost civilization. While there is today no clearly established historical correlation of Eddaland also called Edda and the Eddish people enfolded in what is now Nigeria to Nordic ancestry; elements of some ancient Nordic Viking religious mythology written of in the 13 century CE Icelandic Poetic Edda where the name Edda first appeared are still starkly present in traditional pagan religious culture of the Eddish people in Eddaland in today’s Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Eddics were relatively culturally and linguistically distinct, but today their old language has gone extinct, and they speak a language is essentially a dialectal form of Igbo, with borrowed words from Efik and with spoken a very distinctive accent from both languages (Wikipedia, 2021).
Eddaland is composed of many autonomous communities and towns which include: Ebunwana Edda, Nguzu Edda, Ekoli Edda, Owutu Edda, Amangwu Edda, Oso Edda, Etiti Edda, Ogbu Edda etc. The local area headquarters Afikpo South, being the Nigerian government designated administrative name for Eddaland is at Nguzu (Wikipedia, 2021).
The names of Eddish towns often have Edda at their endings as an addendum designating their membership of the Edda cultural common wealth and community of shared values. Each of the autonomous communities of Eddaland had been existing as small city states with each having its own monarch before Nigeria was carved up by British colonialists. These communities made up of about 72 villages today had been functioning as a confederation of small city states bounded by common heritage until 1867. That was when British colonialists finally enveloped Eddaland into the Southern Oil Protectorate, which even later became a now defunct country of Southern Nigeria. Southern Nigeria was amalgamated with Northern Nigeria, which was a different country, in 1914 to forge today’s Nigeria. The old city states of Eddaland still exist with monarchs that have no administrative functions; but serve as social and cultural representatives of different Eddish communities that were once sovereign (Wikipedia, 2021).
The Eddish people do not have myths of origin beyond their fathers being ancient roaming nomadic fighting people, who eventually settled on the mostly hilly area that is now their home. In narratives that exist among the Eddics, their ancestors forbade their descendants eventually from fighting for conquest for just accumulation of spoils. Which eventually was exactly how the British Empire that later conquered them and after over 40 years of none frontal wars (Wikipedia, 2021).
The designation of Afikpo South was given to Eddaland when it was separated from Afikpo Local Government Area in 1991 by then Nigerian Federal Military Government. Successive legislators from the area have since fought to keep the name of their place, Eddaland as the name of Local Government Area in Nigeria's constitution to better reflect their heritage (Wikipedia, 2021).
Due to a unique culture that values inclusiveness and integrity, Eddaland has a very serene atmosphere of calm and is so peaceful with so low level crime that even today. There are only few Nigeria police stations/posts in the entire area, yet there are rarely situations where local people there call the police. The pristine natural environment of undulating hills, springs and quiet small lakes and the calm and welcoming traditions of the Eddish people casts Eddaland as an ideal untouched rough diamond for development into a future world tourism destination (Wikipedia, 2021).
Unlike the tribal peoples of Nigeria that surround them and the larger Igbo ethnic group they have become virtually assimilated into, Eddics do not have concept of being indigenous as a basis for membership of their cities, towns and villages. The more general concept in Eddics is citizenship, which is about membership of person regardless of places of ancestry, to their community of values and shared norms. Persons are not permanent members of a community in Eddaland are considered as guests, and are generally treated very hospitable. Eddics also hold the idea of integrity very highly and regard loyalty highly also (Wikipedia, 2021).
1.3 Statement of Problems
Poverty is seriously severe in rural areas where social services and infrastructures are limited or not in existence. The greater number of those who live in rural areas depends solely on agriculture for food and income, and a high proportion of rural people suffer from malnutrition and other diseases related to poor nutrition.
Rural poverty tends to be evenly distributed in the country rather than concentrated in specific geographical area. Rural infrastructure across has been long neglected why investment in health, Education and Water supply have largely been focused obn the cities. As a result, the rural household has extremely limited access to services such as schools, health centers and about half of the rural household population lacks access to save drinking water, limited education opportunities and poor health perpetuate the poverty circle. The poor tends to live in isolated villages that can become virtually inaccessible during rainy season.
Therefore, the situation is aggravated by the fact that many rural household are stark illiterates, and also lack inadequate capital to start a business of their own. On the other hand, cooperatives in Nigeria are still known to be bedeviled with problems including:
- Lack of capital, lack of access to credit facilities, Poor management, and misappropriation of funds, etc.
While efforts are being made by stakeholders of cooperative in Nigeria to remove and/or reduce these problems, there is an apparent consensus that the need for adequate and sufficient knowledge of the role of cooperatives in poverty alleviation still exists. For example there is a need to identify and analyze in sufficient details those cooperative activities and functions that bear directly on the economic empowerment of members, as well as identifying factors that could promote and enhance cooperative efforts in poverty reduction. Unless these issues are known and appreciated, the emphasis on cooperative as a poverty alleviating platform may continue to be unrealistic.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Effect of Cooperative Society on Poverty Reduction among Rural Women Farmers using Afikpo South L.G.A. Ebonyi State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following objectives were set out as follows:
- To examine the socio-economic characteristics of the rural women farmers in Afikpo South L.G.A. Ebonyi State,
- To assess the incidence, depth and severity of poverty among the respondents,
- To examine the determinants of poverty among the rural women farmers,
- To examine the influence of cooperative membership on poverty status of rural women farmers, and
- To investigate the constraint affecting cooperative society in alleviating poverty among rural women farmers.
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:
- What are the socio-economic characteristics of the rural women farmers in Afikpo South L.G.A. Ebonyi State?
- What are the incidence, depth and severity of poverty among the rural women farmers?
- What are the determinants of poverty among the rural women farmers?
- What are the influences of cooperative membership on poverty status of rural women farmers?
- What are the constraint affecting cooperative societies in alleviating poverty among rural women farmers?
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.
- H0: There is no significant relationship between Local Government and poverty reduction among rural women farmers in Afikpo South L.G.A. Ebonyi State.
- H1: There is significant relationship between Local Government and poverty reduction among rural women farmers in Afikpo South L.G.A. Ebonyi State.
1.7 Significance of Study
Nigerian government and the international agencies have introduced measures in alleviating poverty, such programmes ranges from Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in early 1980s; Directorate for Food Road and Rural Infrastructure (DEFRRI). Therefore the study is aimed at the following:
- To reveal how cooperative will further increase its role in poverty reduction and also to convince policy makers that it is time to develop a national poverty reduction policy through cooperative society.
- To the poor, to know how cooperative society works, which will go a long way in assisting them to reduce poverty, by establishing Cooperative Societies.
- To the Federal Government, they can use this work as a standard in measuring the effectiveness of cooperative societies. Hence, Government can through this work know the appropriate steps to take in funding cooperative societies.
Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Effect of Cooperative Society on Poverty Reduction among Rural Women Farmers using Afikpo South L.G.A. Ebonyi State as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- 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.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- 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.
- 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).
