Determinants of Credit Acquisition and Utilization among Household farmers in the Drive towards Sustainable Output in Ekiti State, Nigeria
12 Pages Posted: 19 Nov 2018
Date Written: September 30, 2018
Abstract
Achieving sustainability in agricultural output will possibly reduce food shortage and create a stable and fibrant economy in Nigeria. This study adopted Three-stage sampling procedure to select hundred farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using Descriptive statistics, Gross margin and Regression analysis. The results showed that majority (84%) of the respondents were males with a mean age of 47 years. Farmers with formal education were 98%. The married respondents were 89% with majority (68%) having large household size of above 5 persons. Majority (79%) are primarily engaged in farming while the rest (19%) are secondary farmers. The study revealed the mean profit margin of credit users as N138,930.00 (385.92 USD) and N126,412.00 (351.14 USD) for non credit users (1 USD=N360). Also, the effect of credit on farmer’s productivity level for credit users was N255,232.41 (708.98 USD) while non-credit user was N232,345.76 (645.40 USD) with a percentage change of 9.0%. The results of the regression analysis indicated that household size, marital status, educational level, occupational status and farm size had positive signs and significantly affect the amount of agricultural credit acquired by the farmers. Hence, household farmers should have access to acquire adequate credit facilities. This would boost the production capacity of the farmers leading to sustainable agricultural output.
Keywords: Credit users, Credit facilities, Household Farmers, Productivity, Sustainable agricultural Output, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
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