Assessment of the Effect of Bank of Agriculture Loan on Female Farmers’ Agricultural Production in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The study assessed the effect of Bank of Agriculture (BOA) loan on female farmers’ production in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from respondents in the study area through interview schedule. A multi-staged sampling procedure was used to select respondents for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two (2) out of the three (3) Local Government Areas (LGAs) which BOA branches are established in Ekiti State i.e. Ado Ekiti and Ijero Ekiti. Then, 45 respondents were selected and interviewed, using convenience sampling in each of the LGA selected. In total, sample size of 90 respondents were interviewed for this study. Data collected were subjected to descriptive analysis, i.e. mean, percentage, frequency, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values were used to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. The result showed that the average age of the respondents was approximately 40 years and majority of the respondents (48.9 percent) had 7-12years of education. Also, 88.9 percent of the respondents had heard about BOA and 32.2 percent had received ₦50,000 or less. Results further showed that 77.8 percent of the respondents experienced increase in production capacity while 58.9 percent of the total respondents experienced better standard of living. Result from Probit regression model showed that ownership of land, awareness of BOA, and past and current credit use had statistically significant effect on loan accessibility. It further showed that marital status, ownership of land, awareness, past and current credit use and collateral had positive effect on loan accessibility. Contrarily, age, educational level, income, membership of association were inversely correlated with loan accessibility. About 69 percent of the respondents were faced with the challenges of need for guarantor, 61.1 percent of the respondents faced with the problem of bureaucracy i.e. unnecessary delay in provision of the loan, while 46.7 percent had challenges due to the location of BOA branches. It is therefore recommended that government should include access to credit in any agricultural development programs in Nigeria, and provide funds to BOA so as to reduce bureaucracy in loan disbursement. Also, Women farmers should be encouraged and educated by extension workers to belong to cooperative associations so as to enjoy benefits emanating from being members of agricultural association