@article{Seck:273491,
      recid = {273491},
      author = {Seck, Abdoulaye},
      title = {Heterogeneous Credit Constraints and Smallholder Farming  in Senegal},
      address = {2018-04-17},
      number = {2111-2018-4140},
      pages = {20},
      month = {Apr},
      year = {2018},
      abstract = {Credit constraints are among key challenges to unlocking  the great economic and social potentials of small farm  agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. This research sets out  to analyze the extent to which farmers are  credit-constrained, the underlying generating mechanisms,  and how financial inclusion through the reduction or  elimination of credit constraints would benefit  smallholders in the specific agro-ecological region of the  Senegal River Valley. So far the literature tends to focus  on credit applicants when defining access to credit dummy,  ignoring in the process the vast majority of farmers who  stay out of the market. Instead, the paper recognizes that  credit constraints come in different forms to the extent  that they translate into market entry barriers at the  pre-application stage (ex-ante) or contribute to  deteriorate the credit profile at the post-application  stage (ex-post). Farm-level data are used, and a model that  controls for both endogeneity and farmers’ self-selection  into the credit market is developed. The results suggest  that credit constraints, mostly originated from high  transaction costs and high risk, are harming farmers’  performance, and access to credit leads to increased yields  and labor productivity. The extent of the gains depends on  the stage at which the constraints manifest themselves, as  well as the performance indicator and the reference group.  These results suggest various policy options to be  considered in order to unlock the economic and social  potentials associated with financial inclusion in the  farming sector.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/273491},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.273491},
}