ACCESSIBILITY OF FORMAL SOURCE OF CREDIT BY RURAL WOMEN AND THE IMPLICATION ON NIGERIA AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT: CASE STUDY OF JEMA'A AND KAURA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KADUNA STATE

Abstract

The rural women who constitute the bulk of the agricultural population in Kaduna State are poor and the only alternative for raising capital has continued to elude them. Low investments in agriculture have been traced largely to banks unwillingness to make credit available to women farmers who are perceived by banks as high- risk investors. This problem of inadequate finance has made them to produce at subsistence level. Therefore this study investigated rural access to credit and also the impact on agricultural output in Kaduna State. Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Two Local Government Areas (LGAs) were selected. They are Jema'a and kaura Local Government Areas of Kaduna state. The selection was based on women involvement in agricultural activities. A multi-stage random sampling technique-was applied in the selection of eighty (80) women farmers. Each Local Government Areas had (40) respondents. The analytical tools used include among others frequencies, means and percentages. The chi-square was also used to test the null hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between amount accessed from formal source and output. It was discovered that 17% of these rural women sourced credit from formal sources like commercial banks, agricultural banks) and 83% of them got theirs from informal sources like ■ends, relatives, NGOs and personal saving. Women in the study area generally countered problems in accessing the two sources of credit. The women in the study area icountered problem like inaccessibility of credit institution, lack of collateral security, administrative bureaucracy in accessing formal sources of credit. Therefore, establishment of banks in the rural areas, minimization of procedure in getting loans and implementing programmes that will facilitate women access to credit facilities were solutions preferred to improve women access to credit and increased agricultural output in Nigeria.