Credit sources, access and factors influencing credit demand among rural livestock farmers in Nigeria
Journal
Agricultural Finance Review
Date Issued
October 4, 2019
DOI
10.1108/AFR-10-2018-0090
Abstract
Purpose – Rural farmers’ access to farm credit in Nigeria has been very low, which affects farm
performance, and credit providers have blamed for the problem in the sector. While this general perception
persists the fact may be the case of credit demand, rather than just the risk-averse attitudes of credit
providers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate significant factors influencing farmers’ credit demand
to ensure efficient credit provision.
Design/methodology/approach – The research adopted mixed methods for an in-depth investigation
into the problem. There were 216 research participants split into equal halves of men and women from
six local government areas of Nasarawa State. Data collection methods employed structured interviews,
focus group discussions, close/open-ended and key informant interviews. Analytical tools involved
descriptive statistics, the logit and multinomial logit models to determine participants’ socio-economic
characteristics, sources of credit, access, factors influencing credit demand generally and from the various
sources of credit identified.
Findings – Findings reveal only 47.6 per cent of the participants accessed credit, with fewer women
accessing than men. The most accessed forms of credit are from the semi-formal sources, with more men
accessing from formal sources and more women from non-formal sources. Factors having significant
influence on credit demand generally are education, group membership and household size. And from formal,
semi-formal and non-formal credit sources are education, information on sources of credit, deposits,
household size and marital status; education, deposits, group membership, household size, flock size; and
education, group membership, and gender from the non-formal credit providers, respectively.
Research limitations/implications – Due to time constraint, this study data were collected concurrently
with both quantitative and qualitative methods and did not allow for the interrogation of findings from one
method with the other. In addition, the research categorised the agency of women based on marital status
only as single or married and did not interrogate the agency of women further, this may be a limitation as
some of the female participants are from polygamous homes.
Originality/value – Unlike the current concentration of Nigerian research of this kind with quantitative
methods alone, this research contributes particularly to Nigerian research output and experience by
triangulating both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore farmers sources of credit, access and
factors determining access to credit in the study area.
performance, and credit providers have blamed for the problem in the sector. While this general perception
persists the fact may be the case of credit demand, rather than just the risk-averse attitudes of credit
providers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate significant factors influencing farmers’ credit demand
to ensure efficient credit provision.
Design/methodology/approach – The research adopted mixed methods for an in-depth investigation
into the problem. There were 216 research participants split into equal halves of men and women from
six local government areas of Nasarawa State. Data collection methods employed structured interviews,
focus group discussions, close/open-ended and key informant interviews. Analytical tools involved
descriptive statistics, the logit and multinomial logit models to determine participants’ socio-economic
characteristics, sources of credit, access, factors influencing credit demand generally and from the various
sources of credit identified.
Findings – Findings reveal only 47.6 per cent of the participants accessed credit, with fewer women
accessing than men. The most accessed forms of credit are from the semi-formal sources, with more men
accessing from formal sources and more women from non-formal sources. Factors having significant
influence on credit demand generally are education, group membership and household size. And from formal,
semi-formal and non-formal credit sources are education, information on sources of credit, deposits,
household size and marital status; education, deposits, group membership, household size, flock size; and
education, group membership, and gender from the non-formal credit providers, respectively.
Research limitations/implications – Due to time constraint, this study data were collected concurrently
with both quantitative and qualitative methods and did not allow for the interrogation of findings from one
method with the other. In addition, the research categorised the agency of women based on marital status
only as single or married and did not interrogate the agency of women further, this may be a limitation as
some of the female participants are from polygamous homes.
Originality/value – Unlike the current concentration of Nigerian research of this kind with quantitative
methods alone, this research contributes particularly to Nigerian research output and experience by
triangulating both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore farmers sources of credit, access and
factors determining access to credit in the study area.
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