Women's Participation in Agricultural Cooperative Activities and Rural Development in Cross River State, Nigeria

This paper investigated women’s participation in agricultural cooperative activities and rural development in terms of increased food production, poverty reduction, increase in level of income, availability of food and improved standard of living. Ex-post facto design was used for the study. The questionnaire was the only instrument used for the study. The split-half reliability was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument. The population for the study was 8,190 out of which a 10% sample was drawn for the study giving a total of 819 women cooperators, from 80 women Agricultural Cooperatives across the state. After the administration of the instrument only 800 copies of the questionnaire were retrieved and used given a working sample of 800. Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient was the statistical instrument used for analysis. The result reveals that, indeed there is a positive significant relationship between women's’ participation in Agricultural cooperative activities and rural development in all the indices used. It was therefore recommended that women in the rural areas should embrace and join the different cooperative types operating in their rural communities in order to reduce incidences of abject poverty, hunger and improve their standard of living and self-worth.

Keywords: Agriculture, Cooperatives, Poverty reduction, Food production, Rural development.