Effect of “Irkoy Gomni” Micro-credit scheme on Resource- Use in cattle fattening in Tillabery Region of Niger Republic

This study was carried out to ascertain whether credit obtained for cattle fattening has had any meaningful contribution to the resources used by the beneficiary farmers in Kollo LGA of Tillabery Region Niger Republic. One hundred loan beneficiary cattle fattening farmers were randomly selected out of a sampling frame of 732 beneficiaries with not less than 5 borrowing circles. One hundred non-beneficiary cattle fatteners who were immediate neighbours of the sampled beneficiaries were also randomly selected from an established sampling frame obtained from the village heads to make a total sample size of 200, comprising of 100 beneficiaries and 100 non beneficiaries. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square and multiple regressions. The results showed that cattle fattening was the most preferred economic activity for both the beneficiaries (94%) and their non beneficiary counterparts (91%). The chisquare value (5.192) showed no significant difference in preferences of the economic activities between the two sets of farmers. Credit delivered to the beneficiaries enabled them use higher quantities of feed (P<0.01) and labour resources (P<0.1) than their non-beneficiary counterparts. Similarly, credit delivered has brought about significant increase (P<0.01) in revenue accrued to the fattening business of the beneficiary farmers. Based on the results, it is recommended that the scope of the credit be expanded to cover more farmers in the area.