Farm Credit Research Articles

Rice Production, Technologies Adoption and Its Determining Factors in Fogera-Plain of North West Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Fogera plain which is one of rice production hubs in South Gondar Zone in North West part of Ethiopia on rice production, adoption of technologies and its determinant factors for small holder rice producing farmers. A total sample size of respondents (n=74) were selected through random sampling method. Binary logistic regression model was applied to the specification of socio-economic, demographic and institutional factors determining to adoption of improved rice technologies. Both continuous and categorical variables were used based on their logical and statistical hypothesis in relation to adoption of rice technologies. Poor infrastructure, timely un-availability of technology, membership of the household to farm organizations such as cooperatives, access to farm credit and price of technologies were statistically and significantly identified as determinant factors for adoption of improved rice technologies. Age, family size, sex, education level, farming experience, access to extension and advisory services of the household head and size of cultivated land didn’t significantly affect adoption of technologies. Hence it is recommended that availability of improved technologies at appropriate time, infrastructural development to rice producing farmers and strengthening farmers’ organizations especially seed cooperatives as well as efficient access of farmers to credit and saving services in their proximate areas were paramount importance to enhance adoption of improved rice technologies. Keywords: Adoption, Fogera plain, improved variety, Oryza Sativa DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-7-06 Publication date: April 30 th 2021

The contribution of extensive chicken production systems and practices to Newcastle disease outbreaks in Kenya.

Newcastle disease (ND) poses a challenge especially for farmers rearing indigenous chicken under the extensive system. This is due to the lack of uniformity in practices, favoring the introduction and spread of the disease. This is worsened by the lack of information on how management practices contribute to the spread of ND. The current study assessed the role of extensive chicken production systems and management practices on the frequency of ND outbreaks in Kenya using a Poisson regression model (PRM) on primary survey data from 332 farmers in Kakamega and Machakos counties. Descriptive results showed a low access to institutional support services like extension, training, credit, and vaccination services for both male and female farmers. Results from the PRM analysis show that flock size, isolated and confined housing, multi-aged flock mixture, screening of birds, access to ND vaccination, ND awareness, distance to agro-veterinary service providers, and access to animal health training and extension services had significant effects on the frequency of ND outbreaks. The findings underscore the need for innovative extension approaches that facilitate the use of information communication technologies to create more awareness on disease detection and mitigation measures. Use of farmer groups as innovation platforms for enhanced skill sharing and as key peer monitoring channels would also improve compliance with prescribed disease control methods. Further, there is a need for partnerships between local-level county governments, vaccine producers, and agro-veterinary service providers to ensure the development of low-cost vaccines and requisite storage facilities, and their timely delivery to the male and female resource-poor smallholder extensive chicken farmers.

Climate-smart agriculture implementation facing climate variability and uncertainty in the coffee farming system

Climate risk in agriculture indicates the potential of climate-related hazards to impact coffee production and quality negatively. Coffee production has decreased due to changes in temperature, more extended droughts, and increased pests’ invasion. Coffee agribusiness is demanded to respond to the increasing need for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). As a CSA model, coffee cattle integration offers farmers risk management strategies and options to adapt to climate change. However, the effectiveness of its implementation is still low due to technical and institutional constraints. The study’s objectives are to analyze constraints to implement coffee cattle integration as a CSA model and formulate strategies to implement it. The analysis method used Interpretive Structural Modelling. CSA implementation constraints include input, labor, knowledge, technology, capital, and farmer institutions in crop and livestock production. Strategies for implementing coffee cattle integration, as CSA practice, is carried out in a hierarchical stage. It starts with developing a support system to improve agricultural support policies, promote public-private partnerships, and support community assistance and facilitation center, followed by the increasing availability of capital through credit farm.

Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers' Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania

This study evaluated the welfare effects of minimum tillage among smallholder households in Southern Tanzania. A propensity score matching technique was employed to assess the causal impact of adopting minimum tillage using data from a random sample of 608 households. Results indicated that minimum tillage adoption is influenced by gender of the household head, asset index, training on personal values, drought experience, farmer organization and access to NGO information. Minimum tillage also impacts positively on smallholder households' per capita net crop income with the algorithms ranging between 162,430 – 192,208 Tanzania shillings. Further, it reduces the total household labor demands allowing the households to engage in other income-generating activities with an average of -15.67 labor per man-days. Based on this, the authors recommend supporting households to use complementary farm inputs, credit access, and extension-specific information to improve the intensity of adopting minimum tillage.

A hybrid model for credit risk assessment: empirical validation by real-world credit data

This paper examines which hybridization strategy is more suitable for credit risk assessment in the dynamic financial world. As such, we use extensive new data sets and develop different hybrid models by combining traditional statistical and modern artificial intelligence methods based on classification and clustering feature selection approaches. We find that a multilayer perceptron (MLP) combined with discriminant analysis or logistic regression (LR) can significantly improve classification accuracy compared with other single and hybrid classifiers. In particular, the findings of our empirical analysis, statistical significance test and expected cost of misclassification test confirm the superiority of the clustering-based LR + MLP hybrid classifier in improving prediction accuracy in maximum performance criteria. To check the efficiency and viability of the proposed model, we use three imbalanced data sets: Chinese farmer credit, Chinese small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credit and German credit. We also use Australian credit data for further authentication and a robustness check. The first two data sets are private and high dimensional, whereas the second two are mostly used, publicly available and low dimensional. Thus, our findings are relevant for many areas of credit risk, such as SME, farmer and consumer credit risk modeling.

Analysis of Factors Influencing Access to Credit for Vegetable Farmers in the Gulf Prefecture of Togo

This paper addresses the issue of access to credit for market gardeners in the Gulf prefecture of southern Togo. Beyond structural constraints, individual socioeconomic characteristics of market gardeners are factors that play a role in access to credit. The binomial logit regression model was used as an analytical tool. From the National Agricultural Census (NAC, 2011) database, 452 market gardeners were randomly selected. The results showed that gender, membership in a financial solidarity group, sown area, marital status, type of association, interest rate are the significant variables influencing the demand for agricultural credit.

СУЧАСНЕ КРЕДИТУВАННЯ СІЛЬСЬКОГО ГОСПОДАРСТВА

The purpose of the article is to study the main problems of lending to agro-industrial enterprises with state support in market relations and propose measures to implement a new mechanism of subsidized and compensatory budget support for agriculture, aimed at its effective functioning. Historically, Ukraine is an agro-industrial country with rich natural resources and opportunities. However, to make a decent profit, the agro-industrial complex needs regular cash infusions and complete modernization. Given these factors, farmers in Ukraine are increasingly resorting to such an ancillary method as a loan for agricultural development. The long history of the Ukrainian economy, multiplied by current trends in crop production and animal husbandry, forces banks to consider lending to agriculture as a promising profitable business, which can and should be lent. The urgency of the study is due to the growing need to address one of the priority sectors of the economy-agriculture, by increasing the role and availability of credit for farmers, improving lending conditions, improving the efficiency of monetary institutions lending to agricultural enterprises, as well as development forms of their support. Problems of improving the lending system, investment activity of enterprises, lending mechanism and state regulation in the field of agriculture were covered in the works of a number of scientists and practitioners: G. Bezorna, H. Borkhunov, I. Buzdalov, A. Gataulin, A. Golovanov, A. Gordeeva, L. Kolichev, K. Koroleva, A. Kupavykh, D. Murzin, E. Mezentsev, A. Ponomareva, E. Sagaidak, A. Sidoruk, Y. Trushin, D. Epstein and some others. In the foreign economic literature, the main attention is paid to the forms of state support for agricultural producers, assessment of the impact of subsidies in terms of efficient use of public funds and the functioning of agricultural banks, but at the level of microfinance. These problems are reflected in the works of foreign authors: N. Gow, K. Hoff, M. Zeller, A. Sarris, J. Swinnen, J. Stiglitz, J. Yaron, M. Schreiner, Le Min Tu, and others. The changing conditions of the market environment pose new challenges to the subjects of credit relations, and then there are problems of agricultural lending in the changing conditions of the country’s economy, which need to be addressed. Formulation of the goals of the article (task statement). The purpose of the article is to generalize the theory and practice of agricultural lending when there are new economic relations, financial and credit opportunities of the Ukrainian economy.

Symmetrical normalisation of food insecurity challenges in developing countries

An inductive mixed-method research design was applied, consisting of multiple correspondence analysis. Empirical data were collected to quantify food insecurity problems and remedies into a proposed solution. A statistically significant symmetrical model was developed containing two dimensions, technology transfer and software adoption, using six of the eight factors, producing an 11% effect size. The significant factors were: farm method training, application software technology, supply chain cooperation, export market barriers, climate drought problems, and road-transportation infrastructure issues. The two insignificant factors were government corruption and farm credit financial assistance. The study will need to be replicated to build additional validity and the methods should be triangulated before these results could reliably generalise broadly to other developing countries.

Perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies to climate change among rice farmers in Jigawa State, Nigeria: Implication for rice production

Abstract This study assessed rice farmers’ perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies to climate change in Jigawa State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 183 respondents from whom data were collected using questionnaires. Data were summarised using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and Pearson Correlation. Majority of the respondents were males (98%), married (90%) and had formal education (66.1%) with a mean age of 41 years. On the overall, more than half (56.3%) of the respondents perceived the effectiveness level of adaptation strategies to climate change to be low, whereas 43.7% perceived it to be high. Insufficient farm credit, high cost of raw materials, inadequate capital, high cost of labour, limited access to land and inadequate information on weather were the main constraints to adaptation to climate change. The inferential analysis revealed that years of farming experience (r = 0.172, p = 0.020), membership of cooperative (χ 2 = 4.207, p = 0.047) and level of education (χ 2 = 9.570, p = 0.023) and extension contact (χ 2 = 14.270, p = 0.000) were significantly associated with respondents’ perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies to climate change. Efforts should be made to sensitise farmers on the efficacy, appropriateness and applicability of adaptation strategies to foster favourable perception that will trigger positive attitude and subsequent adoption of the strategies where applicable. Government should implement policies that support farmers’ access to credit facilities that is intended to help enhance farmers’ capacity to build resilience. Farmers should be encouraged to take up membership of farm base associations so as to enjoy the benefits therein.

Economic Analysis of Agricultural Credit on Production Efficiency of Borrower Farms

Credit is one of the most crucial but scarce inputs used in agriculture. Farm credit is an important instrument, which has been used to increase agricultural productivity. The main focus of this research is to examine the role of agricultural credits, production and efficiency of farms in Erode District of Tamil Nadu. Kavunthapadi and Modakurichi block of Erode district was selected. A complete enumeration of farm households which borrowed institutional crop loan in each of the sample villages was made. The survey was conducted among 60 borrowers and 45 non-borrowers farm households. In the present study, the efficiency of farms among borrower and non-borrower sample households was determined by the Stochastic Frontier production function of the Cobb- Douglas type had been used. And Tobit analysis was also done to know the effect of credit on farm efficiency. The efficiency scores obtained from first stage Stochastic Frontier Approach for borrower and non-borrower farms were used as dependent variable and a dummy variable to represent credit (X5i) were used as one of the independent variables in addition to other socio economic independent variables. Results of the model revealed that the number of borrower farms with a technical efficiency of more than 90 per cent were more (57 per cent of the total borrower farms) than that of non- borrower farms (33.3 per cent) which implies that the more percentage of farmers availed credit and adopted technology had higher technical efficiency level (90 per cent). The results also indicated that technical efficiency ranged from 0.41 to 0.99 for non borrowers and from 0.62 to 0.98 for borrowers. The results of Tobit regression analysis indicated that net operational area, farm experience, access to farm credit, had positive and significant relationship with the technical efficiency of the farmer.

Constraints Perceived by Buffalo Farmers in Interaction with Information Providing Stakeholders

The present study was conducted in Haryana. The 120 buffalo farmers from twelve villages constituted the sample size for the present study. An ex-post facto research design was used for the study. Farmers were asked to rank the constraints that they faced in their interaction with stakeholders. The constraints were studied under four subheads viz., farmers related, extension related, veterinary and infrastructure-related, and other constraints. It was found that low extension agency contact and lack of information about stakeholders were the most important farmers’ related constraints. Most serious extension-related constraints were less focus of state department of animal husbandry personnel on extension activities, unavailability of information in the local language, poor availability of buffalo related literature. The most severe veterinary and infrastructural constraints were lack of rapport of farmers with veterinary surgeons, less availability of veterinary surgeons, inadequate number of veterinary functionaries. Less information on marketing channels, less information on credit/loan, source of credit availability were other most serious constraints that were acting as impediments in their interaction with stakeholders. The perceived constraints can be overcome by increasing extension agency contact, increasing social participation, availing more communication media to the farmers, providing buffalo related literature in the local language, increasing the number of veterinarians per thousand animals, off-campus training, efficient management of cooperatives, more information on market and farm credit, need-based information, and context-specific information to the farmers. The findings of the present research would provide new insights about the impediments in the interaction of buffalo farmers with stakeholders.

A woman’s work is never done: fiscal policy and women’s labour supply in Malawi

The study sought to identify factors that fiscal policy can target to induce beneficial female labour force participation (FLFP) in formal wage, casual (ganyu) and agricultural labour. To achieve this, the study first used the Multinomial Logit Model on Malawi’s Second Integrated Household Survey dataset (IHS2) to predict the occupational distribution and to test for differences in the factors associated with the choice among the three labour outcomes. This helped to identify channels through which gender-responsive fiscal policies can target and enhance FLFP and in turn uplift women’s welfare. The empirical results revealed that when women are poor, residing in rural areas, not married or are heads of households and are least educated, they are more likely to supply casual and/or agricultural labour compared to formal wage labour. Therefore, to enhance women’s welfare through FLFP, gender-sensitive spending programmes should target women with such characteristics. The study further recommended increased gender-sensitive spending on farm credit and inputs, literacy education, girls’ education and public-works programmes. It further encouraged strict adherence to gender budgeting at national and local government level. To finance these proposals the study suggested introducing a levy on alcohol and tobacco the revenue of which should strictly be used to empower girls and enhance women’s labour supply.

Evaluating the impact of an agricultural land‐use change adaptation strategy on household crop production in semi‐arid Ghana

In this study, the Land Use Dynamic Simulator model was applied to investigate the impact of farm credit as an adaptation strategy to cope with effects of climate variability on agricultural land‐use change and crop production in the Vea watershed in Ghana. The authors identified the determinants of crop choices within the landscape (e.g., farm household and biophysical characteristics of farm plot). The crop choice sub‐model was then linked to the crop yield sub‐model to determine the yields of selected crops. In adapting to the impacts of climate variability, the maize credit adoption sub‐model under the maize cultivation credit scenario was integrated into decision‐making. This was simulated for a 20‐year period, and compared with the business‐as‐usual scenario. Under the simulated maize credit scenario, maize adopters increased from about 20 per cent to about 50 per cent and the area allocated for maize cultivation significantly increased by about 266 per cent. Consequently, the average annual aggregated household crop yield increased by 6.3 per cent higher than in the business‐as‐usual scenario. This simulation study shows that access to maize credit can significantly influence agricultural land‐use change and food availability in the study area. However, although access to farm credit may translate into food availability, the sustainability of this strategy is questionable.

Market microstructure and the historical relationship between the US farm credit system, farm service agency and commercial bank lending

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the market microstructure related to the Farm Credit System (FCS), Commercial Banks (CB) and Farm Services Administration (FSA). The commercial banks frequently call out the FCS as having an unfair advantage in the agricultural finance market place due to tax exempt bonds, and an implied guarantee of those bonds. This paper addresses the issue by examining the interrelationships since 1939, while addressing the historically distinctive roles that the FCS, CB and FSA have played in the US agricultural credit market.Design/methodology/approachThere are two components to our model. The first is the estimation of short and long run credit demand elasticities, as well as land elasticities. These are estimated from a dynamic duality model using seemingly unrelated regression. The point elasticity measures are then used as independent variables in least square regressions, combined with farm specific and related macro variables, for the Cornbelt states. The dependent variable is the year-over-year changes in paired FCS, CB and FSA loans.FindingsThe genesis of the FCS was to provide credit to farmers in good and bad years. Therefore, we expected to see a countercyclical relationship between FCS and CB. This is found for the farm crisis years in the 1980s but is not a continuous characteristic of FCS lending. In good times the FCS and CB appear to compete, albeit with differentiated market segmentation into short- and long-term credit. The FSA, which was established to provide tertiary support to both the FCS and CB, appears to be responding as designed, with greater activity in bad years. The authors find the elasticity measures to be economically significant.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors conclude that the market microstructure of the agricultural credit market in the US is important. Our analysis applies a broader definition of market microstructure for institutions and intermediaries and reveals that further research examining the economic frictions caused by comparative bond vs deposit funding of agricultural credit is important.Originality/valueThe authors believe that this is the first paper to examine agricultural finance through the market microstructure lens. In addition our long-term data measures allow us to examine the economics through various sub-periods. Finally, we believe that our introduction of credit and land demand elasticities into a comparative credit model is also a first.

Flexible loans and access to agricultural credit for smallholder farmers in Kenya

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the level of flexibility in loan products offered to smallholder farmers in Siaya County in Kenya and to examine the effect of flexibility on access to credit.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses primary survey data from a sample of smallholder farmers in Siaya County in Kenya who had borrowed from various lending institutions within the study area. The paper develops an index variable of loan flexibility using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) technique. The model is estimated using both OLS and truncated regression analyses. Access to credit is measured as the amount of loan borrowed by each farmer.FindingsThe authors find that the level of flexibility of loans offered to farmers is low. Furthermore, the authors find that the level of flexibility is not significantly correlated to access to credit. Further analysis using individual components of flexible loans show that refinancing and lines of credit are more likely to improve access to credit when farmers are more educated and wealthier, respectively. The age of a farmer, the type of lender, the type of loan, education and household wealth are the main determinants of access to credit.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the debate on access to credit by showing that theoretically, while loan flexibility should lead to higher credit access, this is not a key determinant of access to credit in this context.

Economic Analysis of Potato Seed in West Java, Indonesia

The purpose of this study was to study the supply of potato seed in West Java, Indonesia. The research respondent is farmers who use seed, with a sample of 377 farmers and a survey of all seed breeders totaling 43 farmers, using proportionate stratified random sampling. This research report is also complemented by a review analysis of potato seedling development in the last five years. There is considerable interest in the potential that can be developed, productive aged farmers, and adoption of new technologies. Factors exerting a strong influence include capital, technology, adequacy of seed, the proportion of certified seed, and farm credit. Factors identified as influencing the level of demand include the proportion of certified seed, seed prices, capital, and credit allocation for potato farming; at the level of supply factors that can exert influence are the availability of seed, the selling price of seed, and the capital of breeding farmers. Policy simulation on the use of certified seed potatoes shows that increase in the number of specific farm credits, the price of seed and fixed farm capital results in increased use of certified seed and reduced self-selection of seed.

Farm household access to agricultural services in northern Ghana

Access to agricultural services promotes agricultural production and livelihoods of smallholders in most developing countries. This study explores the factors affecting smallholders' access to agricultural services in northern Ghana. The study relied on survey data for the analysis. We estimated a multivariate probit model to assess the factors influencing access to agricultural services and a generalized Poisson regression model to evaluate the factors affecting the degree of access to these services. The results indicated that farmers had varying degree of access to different agricultural services. The most accessed service was agricultural extension (63% access) while the least was farm credit (40% access). Access to services and the degree of access (number of services accessed) were both influenced by household size, farming experience, household income, farmer group membership, and geographical location. In addition, the number of services accessed by farmers was influenced by participation in off-farm work. The paper proposed measures to enhance smallholders’ access to agricultural services to promote agricultural production, food security and rural livelihoods.

Off-farm Income, Credit Constraints, and Farm Investment

AbstractMany farmers face borrowing limits that depend on their household income and net worth. Given such credit constraints, an increase in off-farm income should allow farmers to borrow more, thus influencing production decisions and productivity. To test this hypothesis, the education level of the farm operator’s spouse is used to identify exogenous variation in off-farm income. Findings indicate that higher off-farm income leads to more borrowing, capital expenditures, capital input intensity, farm labor use, output, farm income, and productivity. Results suggest that Federal programs that promote access to credit for limited-resource farmers may increase farm investment and productivity.

Farmer’s Credit Rating Model and Application Based on Multilayer Unified Network with Linear Classifier

This article innovatively builds the infrastructure of farmer credit rating index system into a multilevel unidirectional network structure. First, according to the logical structure of the three-level credit rating index system, a four-level unidirectional network is constructed, and the credit rating calculation formulas of all indexes at the four-level network are established. Furthermore, the special cases of the credit rating formula with the first- and second-level farmer credit rating index system are discussed. On this basis, it is extended to a credit rating index system with more than four levels, and the corresponding credit rating formula is established. Finally, the general formula of credit rating formula of the farmer credit rating index system from first level to multilevel is obtained. In order to solve the problem of farmers' credit rating, this paper also designs a linear segmentation classifier to classify the results of multilayer unidirectional network, establishes the rules of farmers' credit rating and the unidirectional network linear segmentation evaluation model of farmers' credit rating, and discusses the properties of bank credit based on farmers’ credit rating. Finally, the model established in this paper is applied to the credit rating of farmers in A County, Guangdong Province in China. When the credit rating of 160 farmers is carried out, the evaluation results are in line with the actual credit rating of farmers in A County, with an accuracy of 100%. This research has the maneuverability to carry on the scientific credit rating to the countryside. This study has important method guidance and operability for rural credit rating.

Heterogeneous Demand and Supply for an Insurance‐linked Credit Product in Kenya: A Stated Choice Experiment Approach

AbstractWe employ a discrete choice experiment to elicit demand and supply side preferences for insurance‐linked credit, a promising market‐based tool for managing agricultural weather risks and providing access to credit for farmers. We estimate preference heterogeneity using primary data from smallholder farmers and managers of lenders/insurers combined with household socio‐economic survey data in Kenya. We analyse the choice data using maximum simulated likelihood and Hierarchical Bayes estimation of a mixed logit model. Although there are some similarities, we find that there is conflicting demand and supply side preferences for credit terms, collateral requirements, and loan use flexibility. We also analyse willingness to buy and willingness to offer for farmers and suppliers, respectively, for the risk premium for different attributes and their levels. Identifying the preferred attributes and levels for both farmers and financial institutions can guide optimal packaging of insurance and credit providing market participation and adoption motivation for insurance‐bundled credit product.