Purpose

Agriculture in Ghana is dominated by smallholder farmers in rural areas. Majority of these farmers are resource-poor and faced with serious challenges in accessing formal financial services towards farming needs attributed to the stringent requirements. To bridge this gap, village savings and loan associations (VSLA) have been promoted in rural areas as an alternative to meeting the credit needs of smallholder farmers. Credit plays a vital role in input acquisition among farmers for improved agricultural value productivity. This study assesses the contribution of VSLA to agricultural value productivity in the Northern Region of Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology is a primary cross-sectional data collected with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire. This study, therefore, applied a propensity score matching (PSM) to assess the effects of VSLA on agricultural value productivity.

Findings

Results from the PSM revealed that extension contact, contract farming, television set ownership, participating in “Planting for Food and Jobs” and nature of roads, including receiving VSLA information from members' increases participation decision of farmers in VSLA. Conversely, age of a farmer, household size, distance to output market and farmers in the Sagnarigu Municipality have negatively influenced VSLA participation. The propensity score matching estimates showed that members of VSLA obtained 38.2% higher agricultural value productivity than non-members.

Originality/value

Village savings and loans associations can be promoted among smallholder farmers as an effective alternative to formal financial service for inclusive development.

中文翻译：

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农村储贷协会对加纳北部地区农业价值生产力的影响

目的

加纳的农业以农村地区的小农为主。这些农民中的大多数资源匮乏，由于严格的要求，在获得满足农业需求的正规金融服务方面面临着严峻挑战。为了弥补这一差距，农村储蓄和贷款协会 (VSLA) 已在农村地区推广，作为满足小农信贷需求的替代方案。信贷在农民获得投入物以提高农业价值生产力方面发挥着至关重要的作用。本研究评估了 VSLA 对加纳北部地区农业价值生产力的贡献。

设计/方法/方法

该方法是在半结构化问卷的帮助下收集的主要横断面数据。因此，本研究应用倾向评分匹配 (PSM) 来评估 VSLA 对农业价​​值生产力的影响。

发现

PSM 的结果显示，扩展联系、合同农业、电视机所有权、参与“为食物和工作而种植”和道路的性质，包括从会员增加 VSLA 中农民的参与决策中接收 VSLA 信息。相反，萨格纳里古市的农民年龄、家庭规模、与产出市场的距离和农民对 VSLA 的参与产生了负面影响。倾向得分匹配估计表明，VSLA 成员获得的农业价值生产力比非成员高 38.2%。

原创性/价值

可以在小农中推广乡村储蓄和贷款协会，作为促进包容性发展的正规金融服务的有效替代方案。