Utilization Of Credit Among Agricultural Co-Operative Societies Members In Anambra State

Abstract: The broad objective of this project is to examine the credit utilization among members of agricultural co-operative societies while some of the specific objectives include; determine the effects of the fund's utilization on member farm business; examine the various uses of the credit obtained by the co-operative members and determine the problems associated in obtaining farm credit facilities. A multistage sampling technique was adopted to select 323 respondents (members of agricultural cooperative societies). Data obtained were analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of SPSS version 17. The descriptive statistics used include frequency tables, simple percentages, the weighted mean of 3.0 from a five-point scale, while the inferential statistics used include simple and multiple regression analysis. Multiple Regression model was used to determine the influence of farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics on their level of credit utilization. Evidence from the study showed that the respondents utilized the credit obtained mostly for productive purposes. However, they sometimes utilized the credit to attend to family and personal needs. The findings from the study also showed that there is a strong and positive relationship between farmers’ level of credit utilization and their farm business growth. This evidence was further strengthened with the scatter plot graph (linear) and the result of the hypothesis (p-value = 0.002). That is, effective utilization of agricultural credit is the sine qua non to farmers’ business growth. Finally, from the study it was revealed that effective utilization of agricultural credit was being hindered by various challenges among the members of agricultural cooperative societies. In order to strengthen the effective utilization of agricultural credit among farmers in Anambra state, the following recommendations became necessary. The farmers should be given adult education and capacity-building training. The cooperative society should give its members reorientation on the importance of utilizing agricultural credit specifically for productive purposes. The credit providers (cooperative; MFIs; BOA; etc) should take seriously their credit monitoring and supervision function. Finally, the credit providers should endeavor to increase the amount of credit disbursed to the farmers.