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Abstract
Farm credit enhances productivity and promotes standard of living by breaking vicious cycle of
poverty of small scale farmers. It is usually considered as an essential input to increase
agricultural productivity. Agricultural credit is indeed an integral part of the process of
modernization of agriculture and commercialization of the rural economy. Credit is a necessary
input if agriculture intensification and agricultural growth is to be achieved. Despite financial
institutions having been established to offer agricultural credit in Rwanda, access to credit in
many rural households in Rwanda remains limited.
This study assesses the factors influencing smallholder farmers’ access to credit in Rwamagana
District, Rwanda. The study sought to establish the relationship between formal and informal
credit use and to assess the factors that influence smallholder farmers’ access to formal credit. It
was hypothesized that informal credit participation is negatively associated with formal credit
use and that access to credit is not determined mostly by household socio- economic and
institutional factors such as land, agricultural extension service, gender. Both primary and
secondary data were used in the analysis. Multi stage sampling technique was used. A sample of
185 smallholder farmers stratified by access to formal credit was drawn. The data for the survey
was collected in the month of May, 2011. Both t-test and Chi-square test statistics were used to
compare users (33 percent) and non users of formal credit (67 percent) with respect to the
explanatory variables hypothesized to influence access to formal credit. Binary Logit is applied in assessing the factors influencing smallholder farmers’ access to formal credit.