Towards Sustainable Agriculture: Drivers of Access to Microcredit and Extension Services amongst soyabean farmer in Northern Region, Ghana

Abstract

In this study, we examined factors that influence farmer’s decision to access microcredit and extension services in  Northern Region, Ghana. Through cross-sectional design with multi-stage sampling techniques, a primary data was gathered from 200 smallholder soyabean farmers using semi-structured questionnaires. The study employed descriptive statistics, the Bivariate Probit Model, and Kendall's coefficient of concordance to analyse the data. The findings show that extension service and microcredit are provided by government and private persons respectively. Also, access to credit is influenced by farmer experience, family labour and farmer size,  whereas access to extension service is influenced by household size, farming experience, literacy, and family labour. Moreover, farmer's access to microcredit and extension service is constrained by high interest rates and a lack of capital. Based on the findings, we recommended that agriculture policy design and implementation through Ministry of Food and Agriculture should take the bottom-up approach to address the needs of farmers accordingly.

Keywords: Biochar, Microcredit, Extevsion service, Husk, Constrains