Abstract

The study compared the effect of Bank of Agricultures' micro-crediton crop production activities of beneficiary and non-beneficiary crop farmers in Sokoto State, Nigeria, during the 2009 cropping season. Data were collected from a sample of 250 crop farmers' selected using multistage random sampling technique. Data were analysed using farm budgeting technique and ordinary least squares multiple regression analysis. The results showed that a typical beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmer realized profit per hectare value in the sum of N 57,120.00 and N 27,570.00, respectively, suggesting the latter realized higher income and that credit enhances profitability of beneficiary farmers. The study also revealed that both group of farmers were not utilizing resources efficiently. For beneficiary farmers, resources of seeds and fertilizer were underutilized while resources of chemicals and land size were over utilized and for non-beneficiary farmers, fertilizer was underutilized while chemicals and land size were over utilized. It was recommended that the beneficiary farmers should increase the use of seeds and fertilizer and reduce the use of chemicals and land size while for non-beneficiaries, they should increase the use of fertilizer and reduce the use of chemicals and land size. Although Agricultural Credit enhances profitability, the farmers need to be educated on how to combine inputs in order to appropriate resources optimally. Timely credit delivery and supervision by the bank is recommended.

Key words: Micro-credit, Bank of Agriculture, Resource productivity, profitability, Sokoto State.