IMPACT OF ACCESS TO CREDIT ON FARM OUTPUT AMONG AGROFORESTRY FARMERS IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Agroforestry contributes to food and income security, and improvement of crop productivity. Access toagricultural credit is crucial to the enhancement of agricultural growth and development. The study examinedthe impact of access to credit on the output of agroforestry farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria. A multi-stage samplingtechnique was used to select the respondents from the study area. Descriptive (frequencies and percentages) andinferential statistics (Propensity Score Matching-PSM) were used in the study. The results show propensity scoredistribution and common support for propensity score estimation from the covariate balancing tests both beforeand after matching in which the treatment (credit access) and comparison (non-access to credit) groups are said tobe balanced. Meanwhile, the result of the impact of access to credit facilities on farmers' output in the study fromthe PSM analysis shows that access to credit had a positive and significant impact on the farmers output.Therefore, the study concludes that improving access to agricultural credit facilities could be a potential source ofpoverty reduction among farmers in the study area through the enhancement of farmers' output and by extensionimproving their income. In view of this, farmers' access to credit facilities needs to be enhanced through thedevelopment and encouragement of farm-level policies that ensure easy access to financial credit among ruralfarmers