ABSTRACT

The low scale of production resulting to low output performance of cassava has been related to credit provision, suggesting that cassava farmers do not fully access credit and enjoy the benefit of credit. Hence, the study focused on the Analysis of cassava production among credit and non-credit users in Abia State, Nigeria. The study examined the socio-economic characteristics of cassava farmers, ascertained the amount of credit accessed by credit users, estimated and compared the cost and returns of cassava production among credit and non-credit users, estimate the significant  differences among credit and non-credit user, analyse the determinants of cassava production among credit and non-credit user, and estimated the effect of credit on the productivity of cassava among credit and non-credit users in the study area. A combination of multi-stage, purposive and random sampling procedures was used to select 120 respondents with a well-structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed with descriptive statistics, cost and return model, z-test model, ordinary least square (OLS) regression model, and chow test model. The result shows a mean age of 46 and 45years for credit and non-credit users respectively.The respondents had farming experience of 19 and 18 years credit and non-credit users respectively, with a mean household size of 6 and 10 persons respectively.The study further revealed that majority 90.00% and 78.33% of credit and non-credit users belonged to cooperative association and about 80% and 69% were married. Analysis of the amount of credit accessed by the credit users cassava farmer shows that microfinance bank had the highest (N510, 95238) credit requested while commercial bank had the highest (N500,000) credit accessed in the study area. The cost and return analysis results indicates that  cassava production is a profitable business. The z-test statistic of showed that the mean value of 2.214 of credit users was significantly different from that of the non-credit users. The regression result shows that age, education, farm size, farm asset, membership of association, transportation cost were significant and positively influenced the performance of the farmers. The chow test result shows that credit had a significant positive and direct effect on the performance of both farmers. The study recommends farmers to form more cooperatives in their farming business in order to enjoy credit facilities and the benefits of large scale production.Policy and programmes on technological, organizational and institutional interventions aimed at promoting cassava production performance in Abia State, should be put in place to improve the performance of cassava production level and the facilitation of credit access to cassava farmers in order to ensure greater output performance at all levels in the study area