Appraisal of the Sources and Uses of Agricultural Credits for Increased Food Productivity by Farmers in Delta State, Nigeria

The study appraised the sources and uses of agricultural credits for increased food productivity by farmers in Delta State, the specific objectives were to: describe the socio economic characteristics of farmers, examine the level of accessibility of agricultural credits to farmers and verify the uses of available agricultural credits by farmers, in Delta State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was used to appraise the farmers. A sample size of two hundred and eighty-eight (288) respondents were randomly selected from three local government areas in Delta State and used for the study. Descriptive statistics such as percentage, arithmetic mean and weighted mean scores were used to analyze the collated data. Also, inferential statistical tools such as: Linear regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed for test of significance at 0.05% level of probability. The findings showed as regards the socio economic characteristics of the farmers that the mean age of the respondents was 46 years old and were mostly married women in Burutu and Ugelli LGAs, except in Aniocha LGA where the married men constituted the majority. It showed that household size (3.781*), years of experience (2.778*), age (2.233*), marital status (1.362*), contact with extension agents (1.129*), level of education (1.109*) and farm size (0.914*) had positive relationships with the farmers’ accessibility to agricultural credits at 5% significant level. The findings indicated that Personal savings, Loan from Cooperative societies, Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Micro Finance Bank and the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme among other formal and informal sources of agricultural credits were highly accessible to farmers in the area. It further showed that accessed agricultural credits were highly used to: Purchase farm tools/equipments (spade, wheelbarrow, hoe, cutlasses, etc. (GM = 3.40), Purchase farm inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, feeds (GM 3.22), Construct fish ponds (GM = 2.89), Purchase processing equipments (GM = 3.10), Pay children school fees (GM = 3.03), Building family house (GM = 2.98), House management (GM = 2.96), and buy car or motor cycle (GM = 2.95) among other uses. The study therefore recommends among others that: Adequate Extension personnel be recruited and trained by the State government for supervision and recouping of government agricultural loans, State government should design a method that would capture only the real farmers on the farm to access agricultural credits for expansion of farms and for real farming, Extension agents should be encouraged to school, supervise and help farmers to form and participate actively in farmers cooperative societies for easy access of credits for their mutual benefits, and A drastic measure to be put in place by the government of the day to punish defaulters who bridge the revolving loans from circulation in the State.