Agricultural Credit Utilization among Small Scale Women Farmers in Selected Wards Of Bida Local Government Area Of Niger State, Nigeria

F.S Gana,S Kenchi,J.H Tsado,R Kenchi

doi:10.4314/jae.v13i2.53895

Abstract

The study investigated agricultural credit utilization among small-scale women farmers in selected wards of Bida Local Government Area of Niger State. The specific objectives were to: identify the major sources of credit to small-scale farmers ; and determine the benefit (if any) which small-scale women farmers had derived after acquiring credit for their farm operations. Data were collected from one hundred respondents randomly selected from five wards with the aid of structured interview schedule. Statistical tools used for data analysis were frequency distribution, percentage and student t-test. Up to fifty-six percent of the respondents claimed that they obtained their credit from various sources for their farm operations. The results showed that t-calculated (17.581) was greater than t-critical (1.9842) at 1% level of significance. Similarly, a total of 47.0 % of the respondents opined that their farm produce increased their income which ranged between N31,000 - N40,000 after acquiring credit from the Cooperative Bank. It was concluded that small-scale women farmers’ income increased when they had access to credit facilities from banks. Therefore, it was recommended that the regulatory body responsible to oversee the activities of (NACRDB) monitor regularly the disbursement of agricultural loan to women farmers at the appropriate planning season with reasonable interest charge and that extension agents should ensure that the loan is utilized for only agricultural purposes. Key words: Credit utilization, small-scale farmer’s income generation, Niger State.

Highlights

Agriculture has been the most important sector of Nigerian economy
Manfred et al(1997) reported that the major constraint to small-scale farmers improving their farm operations was largely due to restrictions to access credit facilities Sadoulet and January (1995), suggested that farm credit is necessitated by limitations of self-finance, and by uncertainties pertaining to the level of output and time lag between input and output
One of the measures is the establishment of the Nigerian Agricultural, Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB, 2000), the single largest agricultural development finance institution in Nigeria. (NACRDB) is one of the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria aimed at boosting the delivery of agricultural, macro and micro credit, to improve agricultural development thereby alleviating poverty among the rural and urban poor Nigerians

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture has been the most important sector of Nigerian economy. It employs about 80% of the adult working population and earns about 60% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigerian economy (International Food, 2006) This is one of the reasons why the country’s economic development policy has been based on the expansion of peasant agricultural production Olayemi (1980). Manfred et al(1997) reported that the major constraint to small-scale farmers improving their farm operations was largely due to restrictions to access credit facilities Sadoulet and January (1995), suggested that farm credit is necessitated by limitations of self-finance, and by uncertainties pertaining to the level of output and time lag between input and output. It is from the realization of this critical nature of agriculture that the Federal. The general objective of the study is to examine agricultural credit utilization among small-scale women farmers in Bida Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

Methods

Results

Conclusion