Paper short abstract:

The study examined how agricultural cooperatives influence credit access and marketing services of farmers in Ido Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State. Using multistage sampling procedure, data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires administered on one hundred respondents.

Paper long abstract:

The study examined how agricultural cooperatives influence credit access and marketing services of farmers in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State. Using multistage sampling procedure, data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires administered on one hundred respondents from the study area. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, Logit and Tobit regression to explain the effects of agricultural cooperatives on credit access and marketing services. The findings on socio-economic characteristics of the respondents revealed that 59 percent of the respondents were female. It showed that 42 percent of the respondents have no formal education and 54 percent were less than 51 years of age. Majority of the cooperatives were formal but had no access to external sources of funds. The result of the Tobit regression, which was adopted to assess the effects of agricultural cooperatives on marketing services of farmers, showed that 5 out of the 10 explanatory variables were significant on the dependent variable (marketing services) at different alpha levels. The result of the Logistic regression, which was adopted to assess the effects of agricultural cooperatives on credit access of farmers, showed that 5 out of the 10 explanatory variables were significant on the dependent variable (access to credit) at different alpha levels. The study also revealed that the cooperatives are faced with various challenges. It was therefore recommended that government should formulate agricultural policies that favour the growth of agricultural cooperatives which will enhance farmers' access to credit and marketing services.