EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES ON FOOD SECURITY THROUGH COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE IN AWKA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ANAMBRA

Food production in Nigeria is not keeping pace with population growth. This has resulted in the upward trend in the price of food stuff. Thus, creating a wide gap between the demand and supply of food. This study investigates effect of agricultural cooperative societies on food security through cooperative agricultural practice in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra. The research aims to ascertain the socioeconomic characteristics of the cooperative members, identify services of agricultural cooperatives provided to farmers to ensures food security and ascertain the roles of agricultural cooperative societies in making available agricultural services to improve food production in the study area. To guide this study, three research questions and one hypothesis was formulated in line with the objectives of the study. The study was anchored on ideologies of Group Farming as a framework for analysis. The study employed a descriptive survey design, the instrument for data collection was questionnaire constructed for the study and calibrated with the 5-point Likert ordinal measurement and rating scale. The population of the study was 198 members of agricultural cooperative society selected in Awka South Local Government Area. The sample size used was 132 members using Taro Yamane formula. Adopting a judgmental sampling technique, 132 questionnaire was distributed and 110 copies of questionnaire were completed and returned and used for this study which represent 83.33% response rate. The findings revealed with a grand mean score of 3.9 from the respondents confirmed that there are significant services of agricultural cooperatives provided to farmers to ensures food security in the study area although members reject the notion that they face significant amount of challenges in benefiting from agricultural co-operatives, with a grand mean of 4.0 the roles of agricultural cooperative societies in making available agricultural services to improve food production is highly significant in the study area. Research hypotheses were tested using Z-Test. The finding revealed that that with a p-value of 0.0149 (p < 0.05) there are significant roles of agricultural cooperative societies in making available agricultural services to improve food production in the study area. In view of the findings, the study therefore, recommends among others that agricultural cooperative societies should work to further enhance access to credit facilities for small-scale farmers. Cooperative societies should provide continuous education and technical training on modern agricultural practices. Efforts should be made to improve the cooperative marketing structures to reduce the exploitation by middlemen.