Farmers Awareness Of Sources Of Credit For Improved Farm Practices In Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

Agricultural credit is not only important for accelerating agricultural development but also for improving farmers efficiency. The use of credit has great potentials in alleviating rural poverty since farmers can be empowered through this process. This study examined extent to which farmers in Cross River State are aware of sources of credit (loan) for improved farm practices. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. This procedure recognized the delineation of the study area into zones, blocks and cells. . In the selection of respondents, a list of registered farmers per cell was obtained from CRADP, three farmers were selected per cell using simple random sampling method. This gave a total of 126 respondents. Analysis of the data revealed that 6.34, 7.14 and 3.17 percent of the respondents were aware of the different sources of Agricultural Credit Services in Northern, Central and Southern zones of the State respectively. While highest level of awareness was recorded for the Rotatory Savings and Credit Associations (20.63 %) in the Informal Credit Sources Category, Money Lenders recorded an average of 10.31% awareness; Friends, Relatives and Neighbours had awareness score of 21.43% and Produce Buyers/Merchants 11.90%. Radio, Village Extension Agents, Family Members and Neighbours constituted the major sources of information for credit acquired by farmers which were ranked first, second, third and fourth, respectively

Keywords: Credit (Loan), Awareness, and Agricultural Development.

Global Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 7 (1) 2008: pp. 5-8