Factors influencing Smallholder Farmers Access to Credit in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Access to credit among smallholder farmers is a major problem confronting smallholder farmers in the rural areas. The study investigates factors influencing smallholder farmers' access to credit in Ondo state. Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents for the study. The primary data for the study was gathered with a structured questionnaire. The descriptive statistics and multinomial logit models (MNL) were used to analyze data collected. The mean age of smallholder household heads was 44.3 years, 60.3% were male headed households while 57.1% were married with an average of 7 members per household and 58.3% had a primary school education while 51.9% were farmers with 10.4 years of experience. The main source of credit to smallholder farmers was through the money lenders. A few of the challenges they faced were inadequate funds and collateral security. The factors influencing smallholder farmers' access to credit include; age, education, gender, household size, farm size, and occupation. Smallholder farmers' access to credit could help to improve productivity on the farm, increase technology adoption and procure agricultural inputs.