1.1 Background to the Study
Agriculture plays a significant role in the growth of Nigeria’s economy especially, as it contributes over 20.89 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), offers 66 percent employment to her populace, accounts for 50 percent of the sources of raw materials required by industries for further production, provides 80 percent food for man and market for other industrial goods as well as export earnings (NBS, 2014). Despite these, agricultural production in Nigeria is subsistence, as a result of low utilization of modern inputs by farmers, unavailability and inaccessibility of farm land as well as low mechanized nature of the prevailing agricultural production system. Therefore, to improve the national economy, farmers should be supported to expand their scale of production through financial resource, such as credit (Akpokodje and Olomola, 2000). Okurut, Banga and Mukuga (2004) affirmed that associated with mechanization and acquisition of agricultural inputs is the issue of credit without which the envisaged agricultural production and development will be a mirage. Inadequate access to credit by the smallholder farmers has been identified as one of the contributing factors to poverty. Credit allows farmers to satisfy their cash needs induced by the production cycle which characterizes agricultural production. Credit supply to farmers is widely perceived as an effective strategy for enhancing increase in agricultural productivity and transformation of rural economy (Philip, Ephrain, and Omobowale, 2008). According to Mahmood, Okpara, Rahji and Ogwumike (2009), the introduction of easy access and low interest rate credit is the quickest way for boosting agricultural production. The argument is that the agricultural sector depends more on credit than any other sector of the economy because of the seasonal variation in the farmer’s returns and requirement in transformation of subsistence to commercial farming.The provision of credit as noted by Rosemary (2001) has increasingly been regarded as an important tool for raising the income of the rural populace, mainly by mobilizing resources to more productive uses.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.