Determinants of credit access among rice farmers in rural Cameroon

Abstract

Inadequate access to credit remains a major constraint to agricultural production in Africa. However, not all farmers face this difficulty. This article assesses the determinants of agricultural credit access among rice farmers who are members of the Ngoketunjia Cooperative Credit Union in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. A structured pretested questionnaire was administered to 126 randomly selected credit beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, all of whom are members of the study credit union. Binary logistic regression was performed, with the dependent variable (access to microcredit) being 1 (yes) if the respondent received a loan during the 2018/2019 farming season, and 0 (no) otherwise. 12 explanatory variables were used in the analysis, which adopted a 10% level of significance. Statistically significant relationships were observed between farm size, inputs, farm output, and access to loans, suggesting that access to microcredit has a positive impact on agricultural production. The three key factors facilitating access to microcredit were farming experience (B = 0.38, p = 0.06), the educational level of the farmer (B = 0.81, p = 0.06), and the diversion of loans to solve other problems (B = 1.64, p = 0.06). Based on these results, we recommend better financial inclusion of rice farmers in microcredit schemes to increase local rice production and reduce imports in Cameroon.