Agricultural Bank Credit Intervention and The Application of Big Push Theory to Beneficiaries: Evidence From Nigeria

Abstract

Up till now there is shortage of empirical evidence on volume of loan received that generates big push for the farmers and the bank to curtail abuse of fund and its determinants. The purpose of this study is to examine the agricultural bank credit intervention and the application of big push theory among beneficiaries in Nigeria so as to make advocacy for a bailout intervention. A total of 295 beneficiaries were randomly selected. A questionnaire was developed, and data collection was undertaken by means of a multistage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, regression model and t-test analysis were used to analyze the data. The mean age of beneficiaries was 46 years old. The respondents had an average household size of 6 persons with 79.3% of the beneficiaries being literate with one form of formal education or the other. About 65.4% of the beneficiaries did not subscribe to membership of farmers groups. The beneficiaries had 13 years' experience in arable crop farming. The average farm size was 1.57 ha. This tells us that the beneficiaries were small scale farmers. The result reveals that the region of big push was between $244.34-$977.37 The variables that had positive and substantial relationship with big push in the model were age of respondent, years spent in farming, education, farm size, cooperative membership, household size, collateral requirement and marital status. The outcome of the t-test indicated that there was much impact after benefiting from agricultural bank credit loan scheme in the area. The foremost constraints were collateral requirement and high interest rate. Loan acquisition procedure by agricultural bank credit should be made easier as well as the threshold of farmers financial management ability should be considered during disbursement of loan to farmers for effective utilization.