Impact of Credit Access on Crop Farmers’ Well-being in Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

The role of credit in improving the well-being of farmers cannot be overemphasized and it has been discovered to be of great importance for the development of agriculture in Nigeria. Unfortunately, there has been low rate of its accessibility which consequentially affecting well-being of farmers in rural area. This study thus investigated the impact of credit access on crop farmers’ well-being in Osun state, Southwestern, Nigeria and data were collected using structured questionnaire administered to 150 farmers selected by multistage sampling techniques. The result shows that the crop farmers were in their active economic productive age with mean age 41years and majority obtained credit from Agricultural Credit Cooperative. Determinant factors influencing crop farmers’ access to credit in the study areas were age (p <0.10), marital status (p<0.05) and years of membership in farmers’ association (p<0.01)while significant credit variables affecting farmers’ well-being were amount of credit needed (p<0.01), credit purpose (p<0.01), credit ration(p<0.01), interest rate (p< 0.10) and disbursement lag (p<0.01).Thus, the study recommended that farmers should be encouraged to form groups for credit accessibility and use it for the farming purpose meant for to improve their well-being.

Keywords: Credit, Credit Status, Credit Access, Well-being, Crop Farmers.

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-4-11