Farmers' satisfaction with agricultural credit: The case of Greece

Abstract

Abstract The existence of an appropriate institutional framework pertaining to the financial system in agriculture, which will support efficient financial mediation, reduce transaction costs, and facilitate the farmers' access to loaned capital on favorable terms, is considered to be an essential step as regards the course of competitiveness in Greek agriculture. This paper is based on an empirical study on a sample of farmers. The aim of this research study is to examine the farmers' satisfaction with current structures and services related to agricultural credit, as provided in Greece at present. On a second level, the objective of this paper is to develop a typology of farmers, based on their satisfaction structures (by a methodological scheme based on Principal Axes Factoring (PAF), Hierarchical and K-Means Cluster Analysis). The results of this typology will allow for conclusions and proposals to be deduced, regarding the potential for improving agricultural credit, with the growth of the agricultura...