Agricultural Credit Utilization among Small Scale Women Farmers in Selected Wards Of Bida Local Government Area Of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated agricultural credit utilization among small-scale women farmers in selected wards of Bida Local Government Area of Niger State. The specific objectives were to: identify the major sources of credit to small-scale farmers ; and determine the benefit (if any) which small-scale women farmers had derived after acquiring credit for their farm operations. Data were collected from one hundred respondents randomly selected from five wards with the aid of structured interview schedule. Statistical tools used for data analysis were frequency distribution, percentage and student t-test. Up to fifty-six percent of the respondents claimed that they obtained their credit from various sources for their farm operations. The results showed that t-calculated (17.581) was greater than t-critical (1.9842) at 1% level of significance. Similarly, a total of 47.0 % of the respondents opined that their farm produce increased their income which ranged between N31,000 - N40,000 after acquiring credit from the Cooperative Bank. It was concluded that small-scale women farmers’ income increased when they had access to credit facilities from banks. Therefore, it was recommended that the regulatory body responsible to oversee the activities of (NACRDB) monitor regularly the disbursement of agricultural loan to women farmers at the appropriate planning season with reasonable interest charge and that extension agents should ensure that the loan is utilized for only agricultural purposes.

Key words: Credit utilization, small-scale farmer’s income generation, Niger State.