Determinants of Demand and Participation by Poultry Farmers in Formal and Informal Credit Market in Cross River State, Nigeria

A typical challenge for the over 65 percent of the Nigerian population living in the rural areas and surviving through agricultural activities, is access to credit facilities needed to procure technological inputs that triggers productivity. This has consequently limited the capacity of small and micro agro-enterprises especially poultry enterprises to develop. This study therefore, was undertaken to analyze factors affecting demand and participation of agro-entrepreneurs particularly, poultry farmers in formal and informal credit market in Cross River State, Nigeria. Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select 295 poultry farmers. Data were collected for the 2022 production cycle using structured questionnaires and interview schedule, administered on the respondents were analyzed using multinomial logit model. The results revealed that socio-economic and enterprise characteristics such as educational level, gender, farm capacity, poultry training and household asset significant factors that influenced participant choice of credit institution in the study area. Also favourable terms, outstanding loan and easier to get loan were the institutional factors that affect credit demand. Training and workshop programmes should be organized by government and corporate financial institutions to encourage participation in credit market such that the huge fund deposit seeking to be invested can be efficiently utilized in the production process.