Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...

According to village leaders, however, the GFs are playing a larger role in agricultural marketing
than they did in 1992. For each of the main commodities marketed by the GFs, over two-thirds of
the village leaders report an increase in the volume handled by GFs.
4.2.5 Credit
As part of the IFPRI-LARES Community Survey, village leaders were asked a few questions about
the access to credit in their villages. Only a small percentage of rural villages in Bénin have an
office of any of the formal financial institutions. In spite of the growth in the number of branches
of the CLCAM, only 7 percent of the villages in our sample had a CLCAM branch. A similar
percentage had an office of an NGO involved in the provision of credit (see Table 4.2.24).
When asked about the availability of credit from each type of lender, most village (64-100 percent)
reported that there had been no change in the availability of credit since 1992. Of the remainder,
most said that credit availability had improved. This was particularly in reference to CLCAM and
NGOs (see Table 4.2.25).
When asked about changes in the overall availability of credit, the responses were more positive.
Forty-four percent of the village leaders reported improved access to credit, whereas just 10 percent
reported a deterioration. The biggest improvement was in the North, where almost two-thirds of
the village leaders responded that access to credit had improved (see Table 4.2.26).
It is not clear how overall credit availability could improve so much given that availability from
each source showed only mild improvement. One possibility is that the cumulative effect of small
improvements from many sources was a strong impression of overall improvement. Another
possibility is that the overall availability of credit was understood to include input credit provided
by Sonapra through the GVs. This latter explanation is consistent with the finding that overall
access to credit improved the most in the North.
4.2.6 Extension services
As part of the agricultural reform program, the extension service of CARDER has been
restructured. This has meant a reduction in the number of extension agents and a reorganization of
their assignments. The IFPRI-LARES Community Survey provides an opportunity to see how
these changes are perceived in rural areas.
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