Social Capital Networks (Scns) Reducing the Poverty on Cocoa Producing Households: Evidence From Osun and Ondo States of Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

<p><strong>Background.</strong> Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the capital required to meet their needs. Whereas, social capital has been described as a vital asset for poverty alleviation since it can provide access to that which is lacking; capital. This study suggests evidences that the poor farmers could benefit more from social capital. <strong>Objective.</strong> This study was conducted to assess the impact of social capital on poverty alleviation among cocoa producing households in Southwestern, Nigeria. <strong>Methodology.</strong> A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 300 cocoa-producing households for the study. Data were analyzed using social capital indices, FGT index, the Probit model and two-stage least square model. <strong>Results.</strong> The results revealed that cash contribution (0.478), labour contribution (0.556), decision-making (0.882), meeting attendance (0.920), heterogeneity (0.659) and density of membership (0.661) are the major dimensions of social capital available to cocoa-producing households. The results of the Probit model revealed that age of household head, gender, household size, years of experience, farm income, and farm size were the main determining factors of participating in SCNs. The Foster, Greer and Thorbecke index revealed that 65% of the sample households are poor. Out of the poor households, 42% are moderately poor and 23% are core poor. The results further revealed that factors including age, square of age, household size, years of education, farm income, farm size, cash contribution, labour contribution, decision making, meeting attendance, aggregate social capital and instrumented social capital significantly influenced cocoa-producing households’ expenditure. <strong>Implications.</strong> The paper adds evidence for a better understanding of nexus between social capital networks and poverty alleviations. <strong>Conclusions.</strong> The study concluded that social capital alleviates poverty among cocoa-producing households. This means that policy strategy aimed toward alleviating poverty among cocoa-producing households must consider their social capital.</p>

Agricultural Organizations and Adoption of Soil Conservation Practices Among Smallholder Farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria

“…Membership in agricultural organizations is a measure of social capital. It has been found to influence the social interaction and exchange of ideas among farmers (Bamire et al, 2002;Akinola et al, 2010;Akinola and Owombo, 2012;Kehinde and Ogundeji, 2022). The result revealed that up to two-thirds (63.7%) of the sampled farmers belong to one organization or another.…”

Access to trade credit and its impact on the use of European Union (EU) approved pesticides among smallholder cocoa farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

“…The Sargan standard over-identification test for instrument validation was conducted in this regard. The satisfying condition is that the instrument's p-value must exceed significance values of 0.1, to be a valid instrument ( Cawley and Meyerhoefer, 2012 ; Howley et al, 2015 ; Cawley et al, 2018 ; Kehinde and Ogundeji, 2022b ). The over-identification test result for Sargan is shown in Table 7 , and access to trade credit information is reported to be a legitimate instrument because its p-value is more than the significance threshold of 0.1.…”

“…According to Ninh and Kieu (2019) , access to information on trade credit, cooperative membership, access to extension services and social organisation membership influence farmers' access to trade credit and might not significantly influence the dependent variable in question (use of EU-approved pesticide). Furthermore, following Cawley and Meyerhoefer (2012) , Howley et al (2015) and Kehinde and Ogundeji (2022b) , the Sargan over-identification test was also conducted for the IV models. If the P-value is not significant, it means that the instrument is not correlated with the error term and therefore it is valid (Kehinde et al, 2021).…”

“…The government used the proceeds from cocoa export as a significant source of finance for important programs including education, healthcare, and the provision of pipe-borne water. However, regrettably, due to significant challenges, Nigeria's cocoa production and income from exporting the product have decreased (Aikpokpodion et al, 2012; Kehinde and Ogundeji, 2022b ). Among these difficulties, the proliferation of pests and diseases is one of the primary causes of declining cocoa yields.…”