Determinants Of Microcredit Access And F Farmers’ Investment In Small Scale Peri-urban Agriculture: A Case Study Of Dzorwulu Vegetable Farmers

Agriculture accounts for a lot of land use in most of the developing countries; hence it is probably the single most powerful influence on environmental quality. Agriculture remains the principal livelihood of the rural poor (Malik, 1999). Agriculture has been the backbone of the Ghanaian economy. Agriculture is very vital to society. It helps to alleviate poverty, provide food security and economic growth. It is the backbone of many African economies especially Ghana (World Development Report, 2008). It is estimated that about 86% of the poor and the rural folks depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and also provide jobs close to` 1.3 billion smallholder farmers (Tita, 2009). According to World Bank Report (2008), agriculture in developing countries contribute an average of 29% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and also employs about 65% of the economically active labour force of the population, from production to marketing of various agricultural produce (World Bank, 2008). According to Ogundeji (1998), agricultural business like any other business activity can be financed through microcredit personal savings, hire purchase and cooperatives societies, private placements, partnership and friends or family assistance. Awotodunbo (2008) also stated that microcredit serves as an important source of funds to farmers which can be used in the production process. The success or otherwise of every farming system to a large extent, depends on getting a good farmland, workforce, capital, managerial acumen and dexterity.