SOCIAL CAPITAL AND THE PERFORMANCE OF WOMEN AGRIPRENEURS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study focused on the assessment of social capital and the performance of women-owned agricultural based enterprises in Osun State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 140 respondents. Descriptive, Z-test and regression testing were employed for analyses. A large proportion (83.6%) of the respondents were young adults and middle-aged adults with the mean age being 45.1 years. The majority (76.4%) of the women agripreneurs had a formal education. Most (73.6%) of the respondents got their capital from personal savings and cooperative society. The results indicate that 60.0% of the businesses were new businesses that started from scratch. The results show that most (77.7%) of the women agripreneurs in the study area were involved in social capital with the majority of them in cooperative societies. The mean membership index was 51.8% implying a high number of active members amongst women agripreneurs in an existing association. The mean homogeneity index was 76.5%, implying association was perfectly homogenous. The result shows that the level of trust was generally low among all the enterprises with an index of 31.1%. The mean meeting attendance was 82.5% and the mean labor contribution index was 36.4%. The result shows that members in an association have the highest mean profit of ₦120,656.80 while the respondents that are not in any association have a mean profit of ₦90,295.56. Alsothe findings showed that there was a significant difference in the profit of women agripreneurs who are members of an association and those who are non-members. Out of the five social capital variables included in the regression model, three (homogeneity index, labor contribution index, level of trust) significantly influenced the performance of women agripreneurs in Osun State. Therefore, women agripreneurs in Osun State should be encouraged to belong to a social association since social capital significantly influenced performance.