Abstract:
This study examined access to agro-credit by farmers in Kaduna state. This study employed survey research methodology which covered the three agricultural zones in the study area. To achieve the objective of the study, five research questions guided the study and one hypothesis was formulated. Hypothesis was tested using Chow test model. The data generated were analyzed using multiple regression and 4-point likert scale rating. A reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha to establish internal consistency. It was shown that, majority of the respondents (40%) were aged between 31 and 40 years, 32.5% where aged between 41 and 50 years and 18.33% were between 21 and 30 years. About 41.20% of the respondents had no formal education, 34.2% attended primary education, 16.7% obtained secondary certificate while 7.5% attended tertiary institution. About 48.3% of the respondents had farming experience of 20 years and above, 19.2% had farming experience of between 10 to 14 years and 17.5% had 15 to 19 years. Majority of the respondents (41.67%) sourced a total amount of between N100,000 and N400,000 from either formal or informal sources, 25.83% sourced less than or equal to N100,000. Others, 10.83%, 15% and 6.67% have obtained credit to the tune of N400,001 – 700,000, N700,000 – N1,000,000 and more than N1,000,000 respectively. Age, marital status, level of education, interest rate and credit awareness were the major determinants of (p<0.05) credit sourced by the farmers in the study area. Sixty-five percent and 52.5% of the farmers obtained their credit from informal sources (personal savings and rotating savings respectively) while 42.5% of them obtained theirs from formal sources. Lack of trust to pay back the credit (2.89), inability to receive the amount applied for (2.93), risk of repaying the credit because of crop failure (2.84), difficulty before getting the credit (2.63) and problem of getting guarantors (3.00) were the major problems under informal sources. For formal sources, time spent on getting the credit (2.58), complicated procedures (2.71), high interest rate (2.80), inadequate collateral security (3.00), repayment time is short (2.55), illiteracy (2.98), lack of good information about agro-credit (2.81) and lack of presence of banks in the rural areas (2.68) were the major problems encountered by farmers.
