Determinants of Access and Use of Credit From Bank of Agriculture ((BOA) by the Farmers' Cooperative for Increased of Food Output in Abia State

Abstract

The study focused on the determinants of credit access among famers cooperative clients of Bank of Agriculture (BOA) in Abia State”. Famers are financially poor and find it difficult to finance their farm production. The objectives of the study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the cooperators, determine the difference in the amount of credit applied for and amount disbursed, estimate the institutional factors of BOA influence credit access by farmers cooperatives, describe institutional and organizational factors influencing access to credit and challenges faced by cooperative farmers and BOA in the delivering and assessment of farm credit. A multi stage sampling technique was employed in the determination of a sample size of 60 respondents. Structured questionnaires were used to solicit data from the sample population. Statistics tools such as mean, frequency, percentage and ordinary least square were used to analyze the data collected. Multiple regressions was used to analyze the factors that influences the use of credit among cooperative farmers. Result obtained from the socio-economic characteristics of the respondent shows that 48.3% were males while 51.7 were females. The farmer’s age ranged from 20 to 60 years with a mean age of 29.5 years. Result of 9 our 12 factors were significant. Based on the findings, it was recommenced that, cooperative farmers in the study area needs urgent attention in terms of accessing credit  from BOA, more should be done by the government or BOA to make loans more accessible for those farmers who need it at subsidized rate, the farmers should deem it necessary to belong to a cooperative society. As cooperatives can aid in accessing credit from BOA and the farmers cooperative should have a good knowledge of the procedures and conditions applied in obtaining credit from BOA in order not to make mistake.