Assessment of Cooperative Society Involvement in Extension Services Delivery in Lapai Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the cooperative society involvement in extension services delivery in Lapai Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select a total of ninety (90) respondents for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages and means). The results showed that majority (88.4%) of the respondents were male with mean age of 36 years and majority (53.3%) of the respondents in the study area were married with the mean household size of 9 persons. The respondents were educated ranging from primary (46.7%), secondary (25.0%) and tertiary (6.0%). The study revealed that 24.4% of the respondents had extension visits, 94.4% belongs to cooperative societies and 84.4% had access to credit. The study further revealed the involvement of extension services delivery to include: providing members with market information (π=4.11), providing information on improved farming practices (π=4.01) and informing Government and development organizations about members farming issues (π=3.93). The major constraints to cooperative involvement in extension services delivery include: inadequate capital or fund (π=4.17), member not having enough time to engage in extension service delivery (π=3.88) and lack of cooperation among members (π=3.79). The cooperators should increase on their contributions to boost cooperative financial status, Government should enhance extension services in the study area and people with proving integrity should be appointed to head sensitive positions in the cooperative societies for proper management and accountability were offered as recommendations.