THE CONTRIBUTION OF COOPERATIVE MEMBERSHIP TO FISH FARMERS' WELLBEING IN IKPOBA OKHA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to ascertain the contribution of cooperative membership to fish farmers' wellbeing in Ikpoba Okha local government area of Edo State, Nigeria. The study described the socio-economic characteristics of fish farmers cooperators, determined the level of participation of the respondents, examined the benefits derived from fish farming cooperative membership, examined the performance of the respondents in well-being indicators before and after cooperative membership and identified the constraints to deriving benefits from cooperative societies in the study area. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 52 respondents from a cooperative society in the study area through the administration of questionnaire. Data for this study was collected from both primary and secondary sources and were described and analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings from the study revealed that majority of the respondents (71.2%) were adult male and majority (90.4%) of them were married. The mean household size was 7. The mean farming experience was 9 years, and majority (59.6%) had 5 to 10 fish tanks. The results also show that they had high participation in cooperative activities such as decision making ( mean= 3.55), collaborations ( mean = 3.61) and settling disputes (mean = 3.09), then the benefits derived are good marketing and pricing (mean = 3.17), equal voting rights ( mean= 3.16) and sharing views and 11 thoughts ( mean= 3.29), respondents faced constraints in deriving benefits from the cooperative society in the study area such as limited funds ( mean = 3.13) and inadequate rural credit (mean = 3.13). Results also showed significance in the socio- economic characteristics of the fish farming cooperators and their wellbeing (t = 0.723). It was concluded that cooperative societies contribute sufficiently to the wellbeing of their cooperative members. It was recommended that the government should be more involved empowering fish farmers' cooperatives and cooperative societies should be continuously focused in the total wellbeing of their members.