EFFECT OF CREDIT ACCESSIBILITY AND LOAN UTILIZATION ON FARM PERFORMANCE (DAIK-U TOWNSHIP, BAGO REGION)

This study aims to identify credit accessibility and loan utilization of farmers especially in Daik-U Township. There are 44 group of village existing total population - 202,530 in Daik-U Township. The primary data were selected by using two stages. In the first stage, 5 villages were randomly selected among these 44 groups of village for the study and total population farm household is 1279 in this selected 5 villages. Among 1279 households, 125 households will be selected which are interviewed by using structured questionnaire at second stage. Then the secondary data was collected from the previous studies, reports and Ministry of Agriculture through interview and group discussion. This study used descriptive analysis and multiple regression methods to explain the results. Credit accessibility will be measured with four independent variables, loan amount, easiness of borrowing, credit terms and repayment. Loan amount is measured by kyats and the other three variables are measured by Likert scale. All four variables: land preparation, purchase farm inputs, labor hired and machine use are measured by kyats. Depended variables are paddy yield per acre and annual farm income which are measured by bushels and kyats respectively.It appeared that the agricultural credit amount significantly influenced the productivity of the paddy per acre. Loan amount, purchasing farm inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, labor hired and machine use are influencing factors on farm output to determine farm productivity improvement. It requires that the situation needs a focused effort to ensure that credit-related farmers use credit for the exact purpose they have obtained. To increase farm productivity, agricultural credit should be provided to farmers sufficiently and timely with the various types of loans. At a level of 1 percent, the value of F-test, the overall significance of the models, was highly significant. In addition, the use of machines has a highly significant effect on paddy yield per acre and income of farmers. It can be said that, due to agricultural credit, the spending in quality inputs of farm and use of machines are the greatest influence on paddy yield and farm income