Analysis of women crop farmers' access and utilisation of agricultural credit in Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Accessing financial resources is critical for achieving improved productivity in the farming business. The objectives of the study were to describe women farmers’ socio-economic characteristics; identify agricultural credit sources, and examine how such funds were utilised by the participants. The multistage sampling technique was used to collect primary data from 148 women crop farmers in 12 communities in the study area using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents were relatively young (with an average age of 41 years) and most (59.1%) were married with an average household size of 7 persons. Similarly, the majority of the participants were small-scale farmers with an average farm size of 1.7 hectares, rely (64%) on informal credit sources and the credit accessed was expended on the purchase of farm inputs, while some portion was used to meet family needs. This study recommended, among others, that formal financial institutions should implement policies that will boost the capacities of informal sources (like cooperative societies and other associations) to access a large volume of credit that they can distribute to their members.