The impact of agricultural finance cooperation to the development of small-scale farmers in kenya : A case study of Bomet County

Abstract

Small-scale farmers are important in any country’s economy especially in the sub-Saharan countries at the grassroots through which food provision to both the rural and urban residents is achieved .the small-scale farming sector plays an important role in the economy of Bomet county .However , shortage of capital remains one of the major challenges to the development of this sector .this is partly attributed to the inability of the mainstream financial institutions such as banks and MFIs to effectively address the agricultural credit needs by the majority of the small-scale farmers. To addresss the issue of financial shortage a number of banks in liaison with the GoK have developed ‘special’ agricultural credit programmers as the case of the initiatives and are actively involved in lending agricultural loans are impacting on the small-sale farmers especially the grain crops growers and livestock keepers in Bomet County and subsequently , the extend of credit accessibility by small-scale farmers in the region , hence this study was to striving to investigate these issues with the aim of suggesting some measures that the lending institutions and the GoK could take into account to enhance agricultural loans access , through removal of the underlying barriers. The study relied on both the primary and secondary data .primary data was collected from the field through interviews and administration of semi structured questionnaires to selected small-scale farmers who were agricultural credit beneficiaries and also the non-agricultural credit beneficiaries (of course to act as control group ) and who were operating within Bomet County for comparison purpose in which the information gathered was verified by the records in the relevant branches of AFC in Kenya .Secondary data sources included farm records kept by the relevant farmer, AFC as well as information from the MoA in the County offices and other relevant document that were identified while in the field.