Benefits of Agricultural Cooperatives to Farmers in Owo Local Government, Ondo State

This study examined the benefits of agricultural cooperatives to farmers in Owo Local Government Area (LGA), Ondo State, Nigeria. Data were obtained from 150 farmers using the multistage sampling procedure and analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation. The result showed that the respondents were mostly males (55.7%), middle aged (61.1%) and married (66.5%). The dominant types of cooperative societies were producer, marketing, supply and credit (75.9%). The most prominent benefits of agricultural cooperatives included increased crop yield (x̅ = 2.00; σ = 0.37) and enhanced market access (x̅ = 2.00; σ = 0.33), The severe constraints hindering cooperatives included conflicts and poor governance (x̅ = 2.03; σ = 0.22), limited expansion of its members (x̅ = 2.03; σ = 0.29), and limited access to technology (x̅ = 2.03; σ = 0.22). There was a significant relationship between age (r = 0.555; p = 0.000), farm experience (r = 0.514; p = 0.000), family size (r = 0.564; p = 0.000), farm size (r = 0.514; p = 0.000), and the benefits of agricultural cooperatives to farmers. The study recommended that community-level micro-processing training centers should be established by cooperative societies to provide skills to rural dweller farmers.