Purpose

Promoted for its inclusivity, agricultural value chain (AVC) financing leverages social capital and mechanisms such as off-take agreements and forward contracts to reduce borrowing and lending costs and risks for both farmers and lending institutions. AVC financing has been defined as the flow of financial products and services to and among the various actors within the AVC to address constraints of production and distribution and fulfill the needs of those involved in the chain by reducing risk and improving efficiency. This paper investigates how farmers' involvement in AVC affects their access to credit.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected primary data from 400 crop farmers in northern Ghana through a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed the data, using the multinomial endogenous switching regression model.

Findings

Joint participation in AVC increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 64 and 78%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Similarly, participation in AVC horizontal linkage and AVC vertical linkage increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 40 and 47% and 46 and 74%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Irrigation farming, extension visits, knowledge of AVC in the community, access to a storage facility and trust in contract farming significantly influenced farmers' participation in AVC.

Originality/value

The authors’ work offers valuable insights into how different dimensions of value chain participation can impact smallholder farmers' access to credit. This work also underscores the importance of considering both formal and informal credit sources when analyzing the outcomes of value chain participation. The findings could enable formal financial providers to identify, liaise and/or resource informal financial players such as value chain actors to supply both formal and informal credit to farmers in AVCs.

中文翻译：

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加纳北部农业价值链参与和农民获得信贷的机会

目的

农业价值链（AVC）融资以其包容性为特色，利用社会资本和承购协议、远期合同等机制，降低农民和贷款机构的借贷成本和风险。AVC融资被定义为金融产品和服务在AVC内各个参与者之间的流动，以解决生产和分销的限制，并通过降低风险和提高效率来满足链条中参与者的需求。本文研究了农民参与 AVC 如何影响他们获得信贷的机会。

设计/方法论/途径

作者通过半结构化问卷收集了加纳北部 400 名种植作物的农民的原始数据，并使用多项内生切换回归模型对数据进行了分析。

发现

与不参与相比，联合参与 AVC 所获得的正式和非正式信贷额分别增加了 64% 和 78%。同样，与不参与相比，参与 AVC 横向联动和 AVC 纵向联动使获得的正式和非正式信贷金额分别增加了 40% 和 47% 以及 46% 和 74%。灌溉农业、推广访问、社区对 AVC 的了解、储存设施的使用以及对订单农业的信任显着影响了农民对 AVC 的参与。

原创性/价值

作者的工作为价值链参与的不同维度如何影响小农获得信贷提供了宝贵的见解。这项工作还强调了在分析价值链参与结果时考虑正式和非正式信贷来源的重要性。研究结果可以使正式金融提供者能够识别、联络和/或向价值链参与者等非正式金融参与者提供资源，从而向 AVC 中的农民提供正式和非正式信贷。