Source Preference for Accessing Facilities : Implications for Improved Agricultural Production by Women Farmers in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

There are formal and informal sources of finance for accessing of funds for improving agricultural production by women farmers in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. But accessing of the funds from some of the sources are hindered by conditionalities difficult to satisfy leaving the women with the option of preferring some sources. This study sought to find out the finance sources preferred by women farmers and their justifications. A survey design was adopted for the study, purposively using the 400 registered women farmers in the (6) administrative zones of Akwa Ibom Agricultural Development Project (AKADEP). A 30 items structured questionnaire was developed for generating data, which were analysed using percentage and mean statistics. The results showed 18.6% preference of commercial banks (formal) Agricultural Cooperatives (formal), 25.77%, women contributory initiatives (informal) 88.17%. Personal savings (informal) 92.09% and from family support 91.92%. The women agreed to the 11 (eleven) conditions as being liberal which made them prefer the sources they preferred as all had cut off above X of 2.50 (level of agreement). Deriving from the analysis of data, women farmers highly preferred informal sources of finance for accessing facilities. In conclusion, the conditions of informal sources could easily be satisfied and therefore recommended for women farmers for easy accessing of funds for improving their agricultural production capacities