Loan delinquency among small-scale food crop farmers and its impact on agricultural productivity: A review of literature

Loan delinquency has been known to undermine the sustainability of credit institutions. The paper therefore reviewed the prevalence of informal loan delinquency among small-scale food crop farmers. The information used was mainly from secondary sources. The review showed that loan delinquency is rampant among small-scale rural farmers in Nigeria. Factors influencing loan delinquency were mainly socio-economic and included farm size, household size, level of education, and farm and non-farm income among others. Informal sources of credit to small-scale farmers were found to include savings and credit associations, money lenders, personal savings, and loans from friends and relatives. The major causes of loan delinquency identified include borrowers' attitudes, the high cost of borrowing, and lack of monitoring and loan supervision. It is recommended among other measures to curb the menace of loan delinquency that farmers should be educated about the negative consequences of loan delinquency on their farming activities.