Gender Disparities in Access to Credit Among Farming Households in Iwo Agricultural Zone of Osun State, Nigeria

This study analysed gender disparities in access to farm credit among farming households in Iwo Agricultural Zone of Osun State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select sixty each, of male and female farming household heads as study sample. Gender disaggregated primary data were collected on socioeconomic characteristics, sources of credit, volume of credit granted and constraints to credit access. Data were analysed using descriptive (frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation and ranking) statistics. Results reveal that mean ages of male and female farmers were 50±1.45 and 52±1.56 years respectively, 31.7% and 41.7% were married with mean household size of 5 and 4 persons for male and female farmers, respectively. Average farm sizes were 4±0.17 and 3±0.15ha, while the mean years of farming experience was 8±0.15 years and 6±0.13 years for male and female farmers, respectively. Results further reveal that all (100.0%) the respondents obtained farm credit from cooperative societies while the other meaningful sources of credit were money lenders (males 20.0%, females 30.0%) and microfinance banks (males 23.8%, females 16.7%). The major constraints to credit access included lack of collateral (males 1.76, females 1.88), high interest rate (males 1.72, females 1.88) and late approval of loans (males 1.64, females 1.58). The study concluded that both gender have access to credit through cooperative societies, but males had better access to credit from formal financial institutions, hence, credit institutions in the study area should grant timely low interest credit to both gender and possibly waive the required collaterals for farmers.