ABSTRACT:

The alleviation and eradication of poverty have remained a critical issue among countries of the world. Cooperative societies have been touted as effective mechanisms for improving agricultural productivity and enhancing the socio-economic status of farmers. This study investigates the poverty status of cooperative and non-cooperative yam farming households in Edo Central Zone, Edo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 yam farmers for this study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measure, and logit regression analysis. The results showed that cooperative farmers have significantly lower poverty incidence (37.10%), depth (9.12%), and severity (3.58%) compared to non-cooperative farmers with incidence (63.35%), depth (27.37%) and severity (8.91%) for noncooperative farmers. Key factors found to influence the poverty status of the yam farming household were age (-0.331), farming experience (0.268), farm size (4.291), income from yam production (0.661), and income from other sources (4.291). The study concludes that co-operative society membership alone does not significantly and statistically influence poverty status, suggesting a need to enhance cooperative effectiveness. It is therefore recommended that policymakers and agricultural development organisations in Edo State should consider promoting and strengthening agricultural cooperatives as a feasible tool for poverty reduction.