Abstract

Farmers’ limited access to agricultural credit facilities is one of the major factors responsible for the declining agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Hence, this study aims to identify determinants of access to agricultural credit among smallholder farmers in Doma Local Government Area (LGA) of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The data were obtained from 125 farmers by administered structured questionnaire in 2008 production season through a two stage random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and stepwise linear regression model were used to analyze the data. The study observed that education, distance to source of credit and types of credit source were significant factors affecting farmers’ accessibility to agricultural credit in the study area. Hence, government policy that intends to improve the accessibility to agricultural credit facilities should create enabling environment to ease farmers’ access to education and credit facilities.

Key words: Agricultural credit, farming community, Nasarawa State.