Factors affecting agricultural repayment among beneficiaries of the Citizens Economic Empowerment Fund
Date
2011
Authors
Kanema, Sarah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zambia
Abstract
Farm credit can stimulate the transfer of technology into agriculture and hence lead to increased
crop yield, hence improving the country's food sufficiency and economic development.
However, most often than not farmers are faced with the problem o f lack of cheap affordable
credit. This study examined the factors affecting farmers in loan repayment in Lusaka district (A
case study of farmers funded by the citizens' economic empowerment commission, CEEC.)
CEEC is a government institution established by an Act of parliament. Act No. 9 of2006.
The main objective of the commission is to empower the citizens of Zambia who have been
marginalized or disadvantaged; one of the ways of achieving this goal has been through
providing access to funds. A random sample of 30 farmers funded by C E E C from Lusaka district
was used for the study. A well structured questiormaire was the main tool for data collection,
while descriptive statistics and Probit model were the main analytical techniques. Empirical
results from the Probit analysis found the level of Education, Disbursement period and years of
Farming Experience at 95 % confidence level as significant predictors of farm loan repayment,
with P values of 0.02,0.000,0.000 resp«;tively which are all less than 0.05, h&ice significant
Level of education and farming experience were positively significant while disbursement period
was found to be negatively significant. Most borrowers were females and were less than fifty
years of age; this can be attributed to the fact that the Commission fargets the women and the
youth in its Empowerment Programmes.
The study recommends that the application procedure should be revised to a simpler straight
forward and friendlier procedure especially to those of low literacy levels to encourage their
participation. Technical specialists should be employed in project appraisal and monitoring in
order to assist farmers to engage in more profitable ventures. A special repayment schedule
should be established for the sector as it is unlike the sectors with business all year round.
Therefore, policy aimed to accelerate agricultural development in the area could be successful if
these factors and problems are taken into consideration to improve participation in agricultural
credit from CEEC and indeed other finance institution
Description
Student Project Report
Keywords
Agricultural credit-Zambia