Effects of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Credit Supply on Rural Farmers in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study evaluated the effect of IFAD credit supply on rural farmers in Rivers State. Data for the study were collected using a structured questionnaire administered to 90 farmer’s beneficiaries using a multi-stage sampling technique. The regression result shows that semi-log function gave the best fit with the highest value of coefficient of multiple determination (R²) of 0.8758 and seven explanatory variables were significant and a significant F-value. The significant variables are farm size, off-farm income, total household labour, and educational level of farmer, gender, farm household size and IFAD credit. The study also shows that IFAD credit impacted positively on the well-being of rural farmers. The IFAD programme has contributed to increase in farm output and income. The study recommended that IFAD and their collaborating government agencies should expand their credit delivery in the study area to enable more farmers benefit from their services. Also training programme should be organized for all farmers in view of the fact that education produced significant influence on the income of the farmers.

Keywords-credit supply, rural farmers, Rivers States.