ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES TOWARDS FOOD SECURITY IN FUNAKAYE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF GOMBE STATE

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Today, there is a growing advocacy for achieving sustainable food security in Nigeria and a lot of effort has been directed at finding appropriate structure for organizing millions of small scale farmers towards achieving food security. Agricultural cooperative society has been touted as the appropriate vehicle for harnessing and polling the resources of millions of small holder farmer producers together to enjoy the benefit of large scale production. Although the activities of the National Programme for Food Security (NPFS) which is anchored by the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) of states in Nigeria is a community-based participatory approach using contact farmers in the target areas, but that has not been able to reverse the upward trend in the price of food stuffs in our markets today. Cooperative according to Omotesho (2018) is one of the most effective vehicle for efficient mobilization of production resources and accelerated rural development. The importance arises from the fact that the small scale individual capacity of the peasants production, can not cope with technological and capital demands of modernized agriculture. Even though the family farm may be considered efficient within the static framework of its motive of enterprise-self-sufficiency, the dynamic demands of modern times are such that such a framework has to be subjected to drastic structural changes. And this the peasant should be educated such that he knows that his interest is being fostered (Okolocha, 2013). The agricultural cooperatives have been there over the years to play this role of drastic structural change in agriculture towards achieving food security and also the socio-economic upliftment of the farmers. Uchendu (2018) noted that the original impetus for the organization of cooperatives in Nigeria came from agriculture, or more precisely, from the marketing of cash coops for export. Since then cooperative development has taken different forms and dimension. According to FMRD (2011), emphasis in cooperative development is now on multipurpose agricultural cooperative for food production and marketing. He noted that, ninety-six percent of cooperative societies in this country are designed basically to serve the needs of agriculture. Even the four percent which constitute non-agricultural cooperative societies have great relevance for agriculture and use agricultural product and bye-products. In summary, it does appear that the government has committed itself to the realization of food security in the country. However, as to the appropriateness and gains of these efforts, Oyido (2017) has noted that, virtually all the programmes and policies were beautiful and fulfilling but they could not achieve their set objectives because of over dependence on the 'Black Gold' which has become the major foreign exchange earner on which the economy depends. Indeed government efforts over the years could not guarantee adequate food and fibre for the citizenry, thus; the country has increased its dependence on food imports. For example wheat imports from the United States in 2007 alone was N2.2 billion. Government's efforts can at best be described as failure since not less than 65% of Nigerians are food insecure Muhammed (2018). This precarious situation has necessitated the National Programme on Food Security (NPFS); a special programme introduced by the Federal Government of Nigeria on agricultural activities to increase food production in the country. Its activities are being carried out in the thirty-six states of the country, plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. In Funakaye Local Government Area Gombe State, NPFS activities are mainly on agricultural activities, namely crop farming, livestock, fishery and processing of agricultural products. The component structure of NPFS in Funakaye Local Government Area Gombe State is mainly the State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) staff on one hand and the beneficial community based farmers.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
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. According to Ajayi (2018), the resulting effect of this imbalance between demand for and supply of food is malnutrition, poverty and deteriorating living conditions. Hence, the need to improve Nigeria agriculture. Over the years Nigeria has been having a teething problem feeding it teeming population all year round and this is partly because it has not been able to adopt an improved farming technique. According to Idachaba (2015), the Nigeria agriculture depends overwhelmingly on low productivity resources, land of progressively declining fertility, unskilled farm labour, the hoe matchet, low yielding seed variety and planting material. Low yielding agricultural and traditional farming practices, poor yield and high cost of food prices.
High production cost are compounded by high processing and transportation cost on account of the primitive state of rural infrastructures especially rural roads, heavy post-harvest losses both in storage and transportation reduce available marketable and marketed surpluses and result in high food prices, especially in the urban areas (ldachaba, 2015). Limited finance and poverty of the Nigeria farmers have also been identified as factors militating against food production. As noted by Obinyan (2000), their holdings are small, most often less than two hectares and are characterized by low productivity. This leads to low income and low capital investment. Consequently, one of the possible ways of redressing these constraints is to mobilize the desperate small holder farmer for economy of scale and agricultural cooperative is a veritable platform for this exercise. The challenge in this work is to study the agricultural development programme of Funakaye Local Government Area Gombe State and find out how the agricultural cooperative have being performing under it, in terms of achieving national food security.
The issues here are whether the agricultural services available to farmers under the NPFS are made available to them? Also, are agricultural cooperative societies really involved in the implementation of the series? Equally, what challenges face the executives of NPFS in Funakaye Local Government Area Gombe State and what can be done to strengthen the programme?
i. What are the socio economic characteristics of the respondents in the study area.?
ii. What are the agricultural services available to farmers towards food security?
iii. What are the effect of using agricultural cooperative societies in accessing services of food security programmes in Funakaye Local Government Area?
iv. What are the challenges of using agricultural cooperative societies in implementing the food security programs in the study area?
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The broad aim of this study is to assess the impact of agricultural cooperatives societies towards Food Security in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State. Specifically the objectives are to:
i. Ascertain the socio economic characteristics of the respondents in the study area.
ii. Identify the agricultural services available to farmers in the food security
iii. Appraise the effect of using agricultural co-operative societies in accessing services of the food security programmes by farmers.
iv. Examine the challenges of using agricultural co-operative societies in implementing the Food security programmes.


1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This result of this study will help to improve agricultural production and food security, as well as in the growth of knowledge in the following ways; Farmers will understand the need to form and stay long in cooperative societies, the benefits of cooperative societies will motivate the farmers to form societies. The diverse needs of students, academics, policy makers will be given attention. For students, this work will pool together and provide them with disparate strands of thought and authoritative educational material in rural development. For academics, it will contribute to agricultural development and food security debate, and provide further scholarly information. For policy makers and development officials, the works will augment the data base and scholarly directions for effective food security and agricultural development policy and action. The co-operators will benefits as it informs them on how to improve their economic activities. This study will also form literature for further studies.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
As the title reveals, this research work deals with the “assessing the impact of agricultural cooperative societies towards food security in Funakaye local government area of Gombe state”. Thus, it is essentially targeted at determining the contributions of cooperative to food security and the agricultural crop production process. This will be at two levels of analysis: society and member levels. The study hopes to find out influence of core agricultural cooperative functions such as farm input supply, food stuffs, credit delivery, marketing, processing, and agricultural extension on farm output. The study being a cross sectional one is intended to cover socioeconomic and farm data of cooperatives and members in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State.
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Agricultural cooperative society: is an association of farmers in which members maintain joint ownership of farmland and other farming materials and activities. Members buy farm inputs and produce together and market same together.
Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country and the ability of individuals within that country to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs.
Assessing: to determine the rate or amount of (something, such as a tax, charge, or fine).
Impact: an impinging or striking especially of one body against another.

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 MEANING OF FOOD SECURITY
The importance of food to individuals and households cannot be overemphasized. According to Abudullahi (2012), food is not only a basic need; it also provides the physiological foundation upon which other considerations and human activities are structured. He noted that for us in Nigeria, food security is both a national objective and a challenge. Food security is not simply having sufficient and adequate quantities of our various staple foodstuffs but it also entails access to the entire citizenry to these food items at affordable prices. It further means that not only must we engage in mass food production, but also we need to ensure that most Nigeria have sufficient purchasing power to acquire food items that guarantee good feeding and nutrition. According to Adisa (2012), “food security can be defined simply as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life. Accordingly, Eboh (2015) described it thus: food security simply refers to the ability of individuals and households (especially the rural and urban poor) to meet staple food needs all year round”. Continuing, Eboh (2015), states that the above description is essentially intra-generational food security as opposed to inter-generational food security, which refers to the ability of future generations to meet their food needs, on season and off season. Carter (2019) has this to say about food security; “food security may be defined as the ability of food-deficit regions or countries, or households within these countries, to meet target levels of consumption on a yearly basis”. They noted that what constitutes target consumption levels and the ability to maintain consumption is being referred to as two central issued of a country's food policy.
All the above definitions have stressed that food security is of supreme importance in improving the nutritional status of many millions of people who suffer from persistent hunger and under nutrition and many others who are at the risk of facing the same situation. They have also touched some important components of the concept of food security. For instance, Carter (2019) and Adisa (2012) talked of food sufficiency, food adequacy and food accessibility. World Bank (2016), Kennedy and Hadded, (2012), noted that food security is access by all peoples at all times to enough food for an active, healthy and productive life. Word Bank (2016) observed that there are four key components or concepts implicit in the above definitions of food security, viz; food availability, stability of food supply, food access and food utilization. These concepts will further be analysed. Akinyele (2019) supports the view of Word Bank (2016) by noting that food availability, stability of supplies and food access are related determinants of food security.

    Date: 2026-08-02 00:00:00.000000