Determinants of Credit Access and Demand among Poultry Farmers in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Aims: The study examined the determinants of access and demand for credit among poultry farmers in Ikot Ekpene area of Akwa Ibom State in Southern Nigeria.

Study Design: A multi-stage random sampling technique was employed to select 90 poultry farmers. Structured questionnaires and personal interviews were used to collect cross sectional data used in the study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Ikot Ekpene senatorial district of Akwa Ibom state in Southern Nigeria.

Methodology: Independent double hurdle model was specified and used to determine factors influencing credit accessibility and demand among poultry farmers in the study area. Various tests were conducted to validate the used of the model. The variance inflation factor (VIF) was also employed to test the multi-collinearity among variables used in the analysis.

Results: Empirical result from the first hurdle model revealed that the farmers’ age, gender, farm size, membership of social organization, extension agent visits, distance from the borrower’s (farmer) resident to lending source, years of formal education and household size are important determinants of access to credit in the study area. On the other hand, the amount of loan demanded by the poultry farmers was significantly influenced by the farmers’ experience in poultry business, cost of hired labour, previous years of experience on credit, present of surety, farm size, perceived loan repayment period, years of formal education and net farm income.

Conclusion: poultry farmers in the study area should form cooperative societies to take advantage of ease of accessing and obtaining credit from credit institutions. The extension system in the study area should be strengthened for effective information dissemination especially on credit issues. Operators of credit institutions should endeavor to locate some of the lending outfits nearer to the poultry farmers. Also, to increase the demand for credit in the study area, the study advocated for the re-assessment of the collateral needs of the lending agents and the duration of loan to the poultry farmers among others.