Determinants of Loan Repayment among Small-scale Cassava Farmers in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the determinants of loan repayment among small-scale cassava farmers in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Data were collected with structured questionnaire from 160 randomly selected farmers. Data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics, multiple regression and likert scale. Results showed that males were dominant (56.6%) in cassava production and majority (37.5%) were between 41-50 years. About 50% had farm income of less than N100,000.00 while about 46.3% had less than N50,000.00 as their off-farm income. Also, the results found that majority (44.4%) obtained loans from informal sources. Factors  that significantly affected loan repayment include off-farm income and interest rate (p ≤ 0.05) and farm income (p ≤ 0.05). The major causes of loan diversion were seasonal activities  in the agricultural sector (66.9%) and inadequate sustainable income (65.6%) among others. The major constraints faced by the farmers in terms of loan repayment were high interest rate and short period of repayment among others. Government should encourage the formal loan sources to open branches in the rural areas for easy loan accessibility by farmers and to obtain loan with moderate interest rate.