Access to credit for rice farmers and its impact on productivity: the case of Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the impact of access to bank and non-bank credit on rice productivity and output. It employed the coarsened exact matching (CEM) model and qualitative methods for primary data on a purposive sample of 450 rice farmers across three Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Pre-matching results suggest that access to non-bank credit and access to total credit significantly affected labour productivity and output, while access to bank credit significantly affected output. However, the post-matching results show that access to all three categories of credit has no significant effect on either output or capital, labour, and total factor productivity. This study therefore recommends that for an improved production and productivity yield among rice farmers in the state, policies should focus on the issues of improved quality of education and constraints in accessing loans/credits.