PERCEPTION OF BENEFITS OF FARMERS’ LABOUR GROUP FORMATION AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was carried out in Kogi state, Nigeria. A total of 415 farmers were drawn randomly from Anyigba and Koton-Karfe agricultural zones of the state. A well-structured questionnaire was designed and administered to the selected farmers for data collection. Data collected were analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics (frequency distributions, percentages, and means) and inferential statistics (t-test). The results show that Majority (91.0%) of farmers were males with a mean age of 51.2 years. Most (69.0%) were married with a mean household size of 8 persons. The farmers’ mean farm size and farming experience were 4 hectares and 37 years respectively. The results equally revealed that, promotion of deep interpersonal relationship (Mean=3.81), access to pool of labour (Mean=3.66), assistance to members in times of needs (Mean=3.33), and access to credit from financial institutions (Mean=2.69) were some of the benefits derived from the formation of farmers’ labour group. While migration of youth population (Mean=2.71), scarcity and high cost of farm labour (Mean=2.56 respectively), and old age of members (Mean=2.50) were some of the constraints faced by farmers’ labour groups. And the test of hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference in the perceived benefits of farmers’ labour groups in Anyigba and Koton-Karfe agricultural zones indicated that, there was a slight difference in the perception of benefits derived from these agro-zones. And the difference existed only in access to pool of farm labour (t=-2.134; P≤0.05). The study recommended that, the weak extension services should be strengthened by government and other private extension service providers to render timely services to farmers, and government should make farming lucrative to entice young people into farming as a major means of livelihood.