Assessment of Rural Finance Mechanisms in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed rural finance mechanisms on agricultural productivity in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The snowballing method was used in administering questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and Likert scale were employed in analysing the data, while the Test of Hypothesis was carried out using the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient. From the study we found out that 67.3% of the respondents were married, 70.0% were in the age range 25-46 years, more than 90.0% had farming experience of 20 years Majority of the farmers (97.3%) were educated and 51.5% were females. From the study, we found out that farmers made efforts to apply for loans but only about 40.0% were successful in their application. Farming households 40.0% had an average turnover of more than ₦500,000 per annum when they had access to loans. Furthermore, loan/credit facilities were rejected because of high rate of interest, lack of collateral, and inaccessibility to financial facilities. We conclude that despite the low success rate of loan application by farmers, those who had access to loans were able to expand their farm operations and increase crop yield. This therefore necessitates more support for farmers by relevant stakeholders on the need to relax the lending conditions for farmers in Bayelsa State.