Abstract

Credit plays an important role in agricultural development, and it is believed that expansion of credit would have beneficial effect on agricultural production and incomes of small farmers that have access to credit. The study was on effect of credit on food crop production among cooperative and non-cooperative farmers in South-West, Nigeria. Multistage random sampling technique was adopted to select 400 and 600 cooperative and non-cooperative farmers, but 347 and 430 cooperative and non-cooperative farmers were valid and used for the research. Data were obtained through structured interview schedule and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Results revealed that majority (74.3%) of the respondents were men across the sampled states. Cooperative credit had highest efficiency among other credit. Determinant of the relationship using linear regression shows relationship existed between the cost of credit and food crop output. This revealed that the cost of obtaining cooperative credit is better compared to non-cooperative credit. Thus, farmers are enjoined to join cooperative to obtain easy credit for maximum output.

Key Words: Credit, Food crop production, Cooperative and non-cooperative, Farmers, Southwest