Effects of Access to Credit and Membership in Farmers’ Cooperatives on Improved Technologies Adoption Categories in Cocoa-Based Farming Systems of Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Agricultural development through technical change of adoption of improved technologies remains a vital panacea to food insecurity and poverty among rural farmers. These improved technologies include improved seed varieties, fertilizer, recommended mixed cropping, recommended spacing, and pesticides. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of access to credit and membership in farmers’ cooperatives on categories of adoption of these improved technologies in cocoa-based farming systems. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to obtain data from 200 respondents for the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, adoption index and multinomial logit regression model. Descriptive statistics revealed mean difference in some socioeconomic characteristics among categories of adopters in the study area such as household size (p<0.01), farming experience (p<0.01) and farm size (p<0.01). The average level of adoption of improved technologies in the study area was observed to be 49%. There are three categories of adopters in the study area with variations in their socio-economic characteristics. About 7.5 %, 41.5%, and 51% of the respondents were non-adopters, partial adopters, and full adopters of the improved technologies, respectively. Multinomial logit estimates revealed that gender, extension visit, farm size, and access to credit significantly influenced partial adoption of improved technologies. Education, extension visit, farm size, access to credit, and membership of association significantly influenced full adoption of improved technologies. The study concluded that cooperative membership has significant influence on full adoption of improved technologies, while access to credit has significant influence on both partial and full adoption of improved technologies. Therefore, the study recommends that an agricultural development programme that ensures efficient and effective access to credit should be established in the rural areas as well as encouraging formation and strengthen of a farmers’ cooperatives for increased uptake of improved cocoa production technologies