Effects of Cooperative Credit on Cassava Production in Yewa Division, Ogun State

Abstract

The study analyzed the effect of cooperative credit on cassava production in Yewa Division of Ogun State. Nigeria. It specifically identified socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and quantitatively determined some socio-economic characteristics of these farmers that influence their level of loan repayments. A multi stage sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents in the study area and structured questionnaires were administered on them to collect relevant data. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents while multiple regressions (exponential form) was used to quantitatively determine the factors influencing the level of loan repayment among small scale farmers in the study area. The result showed that 63.3%% of the respondents were more than 60years old and 76.7% of them were males. Findings also revealed that average number of these farmers had farming experience falling between 5-10 years being married, operating with less than 5 hectares. The result of the repayment function postulated for the respondents in the study area showed that 89.7% of the regression was explained by the regressors. The result obtained in this study also revealed that the farming experience, credit use, interest rate charged, total expenditure on production, and loan repayment period were the major significant farm socio-economic variables determining loan repayment in the study area. Based on the results obtained in this study, it is recommended that credit institutions or lending agencies should look out for socio-economic characteristics and other factors that significantly influence loan repayment before granting loans and advances to small scale farmers to reduce the incidence of loan delinquencies and defaults and increase cassava production output in the study area.

Keywords: Cassava, Cooperative, Credit, Production, Loan