EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL CREDIT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL-SCALE FARMING IN LAVUN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined changes in production levels of farmers as a result of their access to credit facilities. The study area is Lavun LGA, Niger State Interview schedule used to elicit information was subjected to reliability test using test- retest method (r = 0.87), while stratified random sampling was used to select 152 respondents from four strata. Data collected were analysed using descriptive (frequency, percentages and mean) and inferential statistics (ANOVA) to test hypotheses stated. Findings revealed that 55.9% of farmers with access to credits recorded large increase in production level. A significant difference for both production (F = 15.094, P<0.05) and income levels (F = 163.566, P<0.05) of farmers with and without credit facilities were also confirmed by ANOVA. Therefore, it was recommended that farmers should be encouraged to form themselves into groups and saving associations so as to facilitate their access to credit.