Credit Access among Arable Crop Farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria. Implication for Agricultural Productivity Enhancement

The study assessed credit access among arable crop farmers in Ondo State. A three stage random sampling techniques used in selection of respondents. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The bulk of farmers were in the age range of 40-49, with a mean age of 40 years. There was a higher percentage of female farmers (55%) compared to male farmers (45%). Most respondents had household sizes of 4-6 members. A significant portion of farmers (80.8%) had applied for loans, primarily from Cooperative Societies. Challenges to credit access included lack of collateral, high interest rates, lengthy loan approval processes, limited access to credit, inadequate financial literacy, unclear loan requirements, insufficient loan amounts, lack of farmer support, and inflexible repayment terms. The coefficient for age is 0.007, which advocates that for each extra year of age, there was a positive increase in credit access. The negative t-value of -6.255 and the p-value of 0.000 of the sex indicate that this relationship was statistically significant. The negative t-value of -3.687 and the p-value of 0.000 for marital status indicates that this relationship was statistically significant at 5% level of probability. The result showed that education (p-value of 0.000) has significant relationship with credit access. Based on the findings, it is recommended that government should develop and implement educational programs to enhance financial literacy among farmers. Strengthen and support existing cooperative societies, as they emerged as a significant source of credit.