The impact of access to credit by smallholder cassava farmers on cassava production in Ghana

Undergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2020Ghana has over 500 rural banks located at vantage points that could be easily accessible by rural folk engaged in cassava production. About 70 per cent of farmers in Ghana engage in cassava production, and these farmers are mostly in rural areas. These farmers depend on cassava as their source of income, and as food for personal consumption. However, some existing literature reports that rural banks can help alleviate poverty in rural areas by giving out easily accessible credit to rural farmers and households. But is there an impact of access to credit by smallholder farmers on agriculture productivity? Are the farmers gaining access to credit and, is it impacting output? The objective of the study was to investigate the impact of access to credit by smallholder cassava farmers on agriculture output. The study used mainly qualitative data to gather data from stakeholders such as rural bank officials and Cassava farmers. Interviews, questionnaires and focus groups were used to collect the data. At the end of the research, findings showed that farmers who had access to affordable credit were able to increase their farm size for cassava planting, which increased cassava output. On the other hand, non- credit beneficiaries were not able to increase their increase land size hence had lower output. Lack of collaterals in the form of saving account, high-interest rates, lack of interest in credit accessibility and ignorance were the main credit constraint among smallholder cassava farmers.Ashesi Universit