Determinants of savings among smallholder farmers in Sokoto South Local Government Area, Sokoto State, Nigeria

Abstract

Low savings in the economy could lead to ineffective mobilization of funds for domestic investment. This could be part of the reason why Nigeria depends heavily on external borrowing for its developmental and investment projects. There is little or no documented evidence from available literatures of savings culture of farmers in the area. The dearth of such conclusive evidence has left gap which this study tried to fulfill by investigating the intervening variables. Purposive sampling was used to select four and two wards from Sabongari and Gagi wards. The choice of the selection was based on the preponderance of smallholder farmers in these locations. Two (2) villages were randomly selected from each ward. A random selection of twenty (20) farmers from each village gave a total of 120 respondents for the study. Data were elicited through a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression technique. On the whole, age, farm income, non-farm income, interest rate and the distance were significant in determining the amount of saving by smallholder farmers in the study area. Thus, these factors have to be considered in designing strategies aimed at improving the savings of smallholder farmers.