ABSTRACT

Microcredit plays a crucial role in the improvement of farmers' productivity. The availability of credit can motivate the farmer to use and apply modern technologies, and procure input for farm use, thus leading them to a greater level of productivity and increasing their income. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of microcredit on the productivity of farmers in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A total of 60 respondents were selected randomly using multi-stage sampling technique. Data were collected using a well structured questionnaire. The socio-economic characteristics, various microcredit sources and problems of securing microcredit were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies. The OLS multiple regression technique was used to analyze the effect of microcredit on the productivity of farmers. From the result obtained, it was reviewed that interest rate (Xi), age (X2), sex (X3), volume of loan (X4), level of education (X7) and farm size (X9) were statistically significant and important whereas, farming experience (X5), membership to cooperative society (Xó) and house hold size (X8) were not significant. The findings revealed that farmers that had access to microcredit realized high agricultural productivity compared to farmers with no access to credit facilities, this is partly because access to credit helps farmers in accessing market to agricultural commodities, use of inputs, and adoption of improved farming technologies