Abstract:
The analysis of the effect of credit on per capita farm income of beneficiaries of Savings and
Credit Cooperative in Benue state, Nigeria is the focus of this work. Random and stratified
sampling method was used to select 236 respondents in the study area. Out of the selected
respondents only 208 responded and submitted the administered well structured questionnaires
correctly. Therefore, the study was based on 208 primary data collected from registered SACCO
members in the three Local Government Areas of Benue State. In this study the year 2011 was
used for before credit was obtained and 2015 for after credit was obtained. Descriptive statistics,
double difference estimator, logistic regression analysis and independent sample t-test were used
to achieve the objectives and hypothesis of the study. The result of the double difference estimate
showed that the SACCO credit had a positive effect on the per annual farm income of the
beneficiaries of the credit with per capita annual farm income of ?4719.86. Sex, education and
household size were significant factors that influence participation in SACCO. The sex is
significant at 5% level of significance while education and household size were significant at 1%
level of significance as obtained from the logistic regression analysis. About 77.3% and 76.2%
of the beneficiaries and non beneficiaries identified and ranked poor access to credit as the major
constraint faced by SACCO. Other cardinal constraints were illiteracy level and high cost of
farm inputs in the order of severity. SACCO executives and the Government should develop
strategies that will bring in more funding, loans and grants to the cooperative consequently
enhance availability of credit to members. This will help members who are smallholder farmers
to become big estate farm holders. It is also possible that more credit availability to members is a
key to poverty reduction due to its positive effect on the increase in per capita annual farm
income as seen in the study. |
