A STATISTICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL LOAN ON FARMING ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA

A STATISTICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL LOAN ON FARMING ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA – A CASE STUDY OF OHAOFIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ABIA STATE.

CHAPTER ONE
1.1. INTRODUCTION
Since the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria, farming activities has had its fare share of inconsistencies and relegation. Agriculture is a very important sector of Nigeria’s economy. Its role in economic development cannot be over emphasized; umar 2004 opined that between 1960-1976 alone, agriculture accounted for 40 to 60 percent of the national income and about 50 to 80 percent of the labour force is engaged in agricultural production. Agriculture has some major roles to play in Nigeria’s economic development. These are, to increase the supply of food for domestic consumption and export and to create more jobs. Despite the crucial roles of agriculture in the country’s economy, agriculture has had its fair share of problems which has led to the decline and poor performance in agricultural sector. The cardinal problem is the lack of adequate funding.
Agricultural activities in Nigeria have undergone a constant decline this is as a result of more financing by government and other corporate organizations like commercial banks. Efforts have been made by previous governments in Nigeria to resuscitate agriculture activities in Nigeria by making provisions for loans
so that agriculturists a vast majority of them being average Nigerians can have access to these loans to improve their production base and employ labour.
Agricultural financing in Nigeria has proven to be fairly successful when it comes to getting these funds to the actual rural farmers who are in dare need of this assistance. The effect of adequate agricultural loan on agricultural activities cannot be over emphasized. For agricultural loan system to be effective again a lot of things have to be gotten right. Agricultural loan is considered as a catalyst that activates other factors of production and makes under-used capacities functional for increased production (Ijere, 1998). Thus agricultural loan plays an important role in agricultural and rural development as it enables farmers reap economies of scale, venture into new fields of production, employ new technologies and empower them to provide utilities for a widening market.

1.2. Statement of general problem
In a developing country like Nigeria, they’ve not been a defined way of properly financing agricultural activities; this is because most of these farmers are rural dwellers. Another problem is the challenges faced by these farmers in accessing these loans from government since most of them are peasant. A Major problem leading us to this research is to know the percentage of success recorded in assistance of farmers especially those ones in the villages with loans. An equally major problem is to know if increased agricultural loan assistance would actually end unemployment and increase productivity.

A STATISTICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL LOAN ON FARMING ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA – A CASE STUDY OF OHAOFIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ABIA STATE.