Rural farmers sources and use of credit in nsukka local government area of Enugu state, Nigeria

Abstract

Agriculture is a major contributor to Nigeria's GDP and small-scale farmers play a dominant role in this contribution but their productivity and growth are hindered by limited access to credit facilities. The study focused on the rural farmers' sources and use of credit facilities in Nsukka local government area of Enugu state, Nigeria. Data for the study were collected from sixty rural farmers through the use of interview schedule. Multistate sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. Descriptive statistic was used to analyse data. Result of the study shows that 53.3% of the respondents had no access to credit, among those that had access to credit, majority got their credit through friends and relations (89.3%) and cooperative society (78.6%). The major constraint on credit access was few availability of credit institution in the area (M = 3.63) while the possible ways of improving farmers access to agricultural credit was making the interest rate low and affordable (M = 2.84). It was recommended that awareness should be created by extension agents in the rural area on various available credit sources and the existing farmers group can be strengthened while federal government revisit the mandate of Micro Finance Banks to be more responsive to the need to rural farmers in t e rm of credit facility.