Institutional credit and rice productivity: a case study of District Lahore, Pakistan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how institutional credit affected the productivity of rice crop in District Lahore, Punjab Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select the sample respondents. The district was divided into three strata; from each stratum two villages were randomly selected and from each village ten loanee farmers were randomly selected from the given list of borrowers. An equal number of non-loanee farmers were also selected. Cobb Douglas function was used to calculate the impact of credit on rice productivity. Findings – The coefficient of credit was significant, which indicated that credit has a positive impact on the productivity of rice, providing a clue that credit is an important tool for improving and increasing the agricultural productivity in general and that of rice in particular. Originality/value – The paper will be an important addition to the literature in the current credit impact studies and will help especially the agricultural planners who are responsible for allocating funds for the agricultural sector in general and for the rice sector in particular. The paper's recommendations will help mitigate the problems of the farming community, especially of the small farmers in securing the institutional credit.