Effects of the Activities of Cooperative Societies on Cassava Product Prices in Orhionmwon Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria

This study dealt with the analysis of the effects of cooperative activities on cassava product prices in Orhionmwon LGA of Edo State, Nigeria. The socioeconomic characteristics of respondents, factors that affect cassava prices, effect of price fluctuation on farmers’ attitude to production, activities carried out by cooperative societies and their effects, both subjective (farmers’ perception) and objective (financial valuation) were examined. Primary data was utilized using structured questionnaire which was administered to 120 respondents who were selected using simple random sampling technique from 30 cooperatives obtained from a list of collected from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Edo State. However, only 114 questionnaire retrieved were suitable for analysis. Value added approach was used to analyze the actual price changes caused by activities of cassava cooperative prices on market prices of cassava products. The data showed that seasonality, consumer demand, product quality, road network, cooperative activities, economic shocks, product nature, product form and consumer culture were the significant factors affecting cassava prices in the area. Farmers were seen to be affected by price changes, especially price increase which caused them to increase production. Activities of cooperatives were seen to include bulk sales, value addition, bulk purchase of inputs and buying off members. Value addition activities found to be significant include group processing, packaging, transport and storage. The effect of bulk sales on product prices was subjectively perceived to be significant while price change caused by bulk sales and group processing into garri, fufu, flour, starch and cassava chips were found to be significant with value added means of N 112.4, N 475.4, N 1479.4, N 1390.3, N 263.2, N 3277.1 respectively for 100 kg bags of cassava product. The study therefore recommended educating and advising farmers on the benefits of joining cooperatives to draw more patronage and participation to the cooperative societies. Also cooperatives should utilize better and improved technologies and perform more value addition activities to stabilize prices for farmers and improve their income.