Socioeconomic Factors Influencing Agricultural Production among Cooperative Farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was informed by the perceived declining food production in Nigeria which was supported by literature. Food production in Nigeria no longer keep with population growth. Thus creating  a wide gap between the demand and supply of food. To investigate the identified problem of perceived declining food production in Nigeria, the study specifically  investigated the influence of  socioeconomic characteristics of the cooperative farmers on agricultural production as proxied by the farmers output levels using a regression model of the ordinary least square. Findings revealed that eight (Age, Educational Qualification, Farming Experience, Farm Size, Income, Seedling Obtain, Fertilizer Obtain and Fertility of the land) out of the fourteen coefficients of the variables included in the model are significant. Twelve of the coefficients have positive relationship with the cooperative farmers output. While four of the coefficients have inverse relationship with cooperative farmers output. The joint effect of the explanatory variable in the model account for 95.9% of the variations in the factors affecting the cooperative farmers output. The study therefore recommends among others that the government should provide agricultural credit to farmers, initiate and support mechanized farming. This will help improve the productivity and output of the farmers in Anambra state. The government should also encourage the farmers by improving on agricultural Infrastructural Facilities because it has been identified as one of the major challenges  faced by the cooperative farmers in improving agricultural production.