ABSTRACT
Despite numerous governmental programmes and policies aimed at channeling credit to farmers, credit problems have persisted. There also seems to be dearth of knowledge on the effect of micro credit on catfish production in the study area. In essence, there is the need to critically examine the effect of credit in catfish production and making the right recommendations towards encouraging lending to the sector. The broad objective of this study was to examine the effects of microcredit on catfish production in Delta State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of users and non-users of Microcredit among catfish farmers in Delta State; identify the sources of microcredit by respondents and time of delivery, estimate the costs, returns and profitability of catfish production in Delta State, identify the reasons for non-use of credit by non beneficiaries in the study area, determine the effect of microcredit on output of beneficiaries among catfish farmers in the study area and identify these constraints affecting catfish production in the study area. A multistage sampling procedure was used in the selection of 120 credit beneficiaries and 127 non-credit beneficiaries making a total 0f 227 respondents. Primary data were obtained through the use of questionnaires administered to the respondents. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, frequency counts and percentages), gross income analysis, regression analysis, t-test analysis and likert scale type. Results from the study showed that 71% and 69.1% of the credit and non-credit beneficiaries were male, the mean age of the credit and non-credit users was 42.4 and 39.3 years respectively, majority of the respondents were literate and married and had a mean household size of 7.1 and 6.04 for credit and non-credit beneficiaries. The mean farming experience was 9.06, 8.13 for the two groups of catfish farmers respectively. Informal sources of microcredit were the most patronized, the mean time of delivery was six months ,the major reasons stated by non-users of credit for not taking credit were long processing period of loan, high interest rate. The returns on investment for the credit beneficiaries and non credit users were 0.89 and 0.52 which showed that the credit users had higher profit due to credit utilized.
The regression analysis showed that the coefficients of pond size, volume of loan, feed, number of fingerlings, depreciation on fixed inputs were positive and statistically significant. The t-test result showed that the output of the credit beneficiaries was significantly higher compared to non beneficiaries. The constraints affecting catfish production in the study area were high cost of inputs, insufficient finance, scarcity of quality fingerlings, flooding, incidence of diseases and inadequate storage facilities. Based on the findings of the study, microcredit had a positive effect on catfish production in the study area.
It is recommended that Government should increase funding for credit institutions and make it more accessible to reach more catfish farmers in the study area.
