Access to finance and difference in family farm productivity in Benin: Evidence from small farms

In most of developing countries, agricultural finance is weak and there is a great constraint for family farmers to access credit. In that context, this article aims to analyze the effect of access to finance on the productivity of smallholders family farmers. Using a rich national representative su...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Denis Acclassato Houensou, Godefroy G. Goudjo, Melain Modeste Senou, PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
Series:Scientific African
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227621002441
Description
Summary:In most of developing countries, agricultural finance is weak and there is a great constraint for family farmers to access credit. In that context, this article aims to analyze the effect of access to finance on the productivity of smallholders family farmers. Using a rich national representative survey data covering the 2016–2017 agricultural season, we estimated an Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model. The results show that access to credit has a positive impact on the productivity of smallholder farmers, with a gain of 15%. Small farmers manage to achieve a 13% increase in productivity, which is a very significant performance. These findings suggest the establishment of a policy to support small farms, so that they are more productive and more favorable to agricultural growth.
ISSN:2468-2276