Analysis of Farmers Business School Training Effects on Cocoa Farmers' Record Keeping Practices in Southwest Nigeria.

Abstract

Farmer Business School (FBS) was introduced into the Nigerian cocoa sector in 2010 for cocoa farmers. From
year 2010 to date, over 40,000 cocoa farmers have been trained on FBS concept in 6 cocoa producing states
namely; Abia, Cross River, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun States. This study analyzed FBS training effects on
cocoa farmers' Record Keeping Practices (RKPs) in Southwest Nigeria. Osun and Ondo states were
purposively selected using purposive sampling technique being among the high cocoa producing states to
obtain 256 respondents. In each state, two FBS schools were sampled using simple random sampling
techniques from Idanre and Ile Oluji, Ede North and Ilesa East Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ondo and
Osun states respectively. The average number of farmers in each FBS school was 32; this resulted into 256
cocoa farmers selected as sample for the study. The study revealed that 58.3% of the respondents were male,
36.6% were over 50 years old with mean age of 42.5years and very few (17.5%) had tertiary education. Age
and educational level of respondents were found to be significantly associated with farmers RKPs. The study
recommended that FBS concept should be adopted across all commodities and states in Nigeria.