September 2016 Vol. 5 No.2

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Original Research Article

Impact of Micro Credit on Poverty Alleviation among Female Headed Yam Farmers in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria

^*Ajah E. A. and Egbonyi L. B.

Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author’s Email: ajahagom@yahoo.com

Accepted April 24, 2017

Abstract

Micro credit has been considered as the latest panacea for poverty alleviation, it allows the poor to become more self reliant, create employment opportunities, increase savings, enable them acquire entrepreneurial skills and not least, engage household in economically productive activities. Lack of micro credit has been described as one of the factor militating against the productivity of agriculture in Nigeria especially among the rural farmers. This study was designed to analyze the impact micro credit on poverty alleviation among female headed yam farmers in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State. It specifically sought to identify the socio-economic characteristics of female yam farmers in the study, identify their sources of micro credit, assess the poverty status of those who access micro credit and those who did not and challenges in accessing micro credit. The study used purposive and simple random sampling techniques to select one hundred and three (103) female yam farmers from three (3) communities which are the major yam producing communities in Yakurr Local Government Area. Data were obtained from primary sources with the aid of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency count, mean, tables, percentages and Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) model. The result showed that 29.1% of the respondents were above 50 years with 48.5% of them having attained SSCE and had a mean farm size of 3.0ha. The finding showed that huge amount of their expenditure was spent on food (61.63% for those who access and 61.51% for those who did not access micro credit). Forty two percent of those who did not access micro credit were poor (0.42) while twenty six percent of those who access were poor (0.26). The major challenges encountered by female yam farmers in accessing micro credit were high interest rate, lack of collateral and guarantor. Based on the findings of the study, it was therefore recommended that massive awareness on the importance of micro credit in fighting widespread of poverty should be launched in the country.

Key Words: Micro credit , poverty alleviation and access.