Agricultural Finance Review

Effects of agricultural credit on wheat productivity of small farms in Sindh,

Pakistan: Are short-term loans better?
Abbas Ali Chandio, Yuansheng Jiang, Feng Wei, Xu Guangshun,
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on wheat productivity of small farms in Sindh, Pakistan: Are short-term loans better?", Agricultural
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AFR
78,5 Effects of agricultural credit on
wheat productivity of small farms
in Sindh, Pakistan
592 Are short-term loans better?
Received 12 February 2017
Revised 8 May 2017
Abbas Ali Chandio, Yuansheng Jiang, Feng Wei and Xu Guangshun
16 May 2017 College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
27 June 2017
5 March 2018
7 May 2018 Abstract
6 June 2018
19 June 2018 Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of short-term loan (STL) vs long-term loan
Accepted 22 June 2018 (LTL) on wheat productivity of small farms in Sindh, Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach – The econometric estimation is based on cross-sectional data collected in
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2016 from 18 villages in three districts, i.e. Shikarpur, Sukkur and Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, Pakistan. The
sample data set consist of 180 wheat farmers. The collected data were analyzed through different econometric
techniques like Cobb–Douglas production function and Instrumental variables (two-stage least squares) approach.
Findings – This study reconfirmed that agricultural credit has a positive and highly significant effect on
wheat productivity, while the short-term loan has a stronger effect on wheat productivity than the long-term
loan. The reasons behind the phenomenon may be the significantly higher usage of agricultural inputs like
seeds of improved variety and fertilizers which can be transformed into the wheat yield in the same year.
However, the LTL users have significantly higher investments in land preparation, irrigation and plant
protection, which may lead to higher wheat production in the coming years.
Research limitations/implications – In the present study, only those wheat farmers were considered who
obtained agricultural loans from formal financial institutions like Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited and
Khushhali Bank. However, in the rural areas of Sindh, Pakistan, a considerable proportion of small-scale
farmers take credit from informal financial channels. Therefore future researchers should consider the
informal credits as well.
Originality/value – This is the first paper to examine the effects of agricultural credit on wheat productivity
of small farms in Sindh, Pakistan. This paper will be an important addition to the emerging literature
regarding effects of credit studies.
Keywords Pakistan, Cobb–Douglas, IV approach, Short-term loan, Wheat productivity
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
For the modernization of agriculture and rural economic development, agricultural credit
plays a vital role. The modernization of agriculture is the process of introducing modern
technologies, improving human resources, managing natural resources and environment;
however, agricultural credit remains one of the most important factors. Agricultural credit
provides an opportunity to farmers for sufficient use of inputs, adoption of modern
technologies and more proper allocation of resources to enhance food security and eradicate
poverty (World Bank, 2003). Financing of agricultural production, especially through the
provision of credit to small-scale farmers, remains the key to macroeconomic development
induced by agriculture (Anetor et al., 2016). In Pakistan, the government has implemented a
policy to improve farm production and food security by providing agricultural credit to
smallholder farmers. The policy was partially successful in increasing the proportion of

© Abbas Ali Chandio, Yuansheng Jiang, Feng Wei and Xu Guangshun. Published in the AFR
Agricultural Finance Review Agricultural Finance Review. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the
Vol. 78 No. 5, 2018
pp. 592-610 Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create
Emerald Publishing Limited derivative works of this article, subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full
0002-1466
DOI 10.1108/AFR-02-2017-0010 terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
 households for receiving credit. However, it was less successful to fulfill the demand Effects of
of farmers (Hussain and Thapa, 2012). This has led to a large gap between the demand for agricultural
and the supply of credit. Agricultural credit has an essential role in enhancing agricultural credit on wheat
production in Pakistan. Researchers showed that agricultural credit positively affected
agricultural production yield per acre after controlling the education of farmers and family productivity
size (Hussain and Thapa, 2012; Rahman et al., 2014; Saqib et al., 2016; Abdallah, 2016).
Previous literature attempted to explain that agricultural credit has a positive and 593
significant impact on agricultural productivity. For example, credit has increased
application of fertilizer and pesticides, irrigation and mechanization of agricultural
production. Various researchers (e.g. Iqbal et al., 2003; Khandhar and Faruqee, 2003;
Rahman et al., 2014; Akudugu, 2016) argue that credit enables farmers to purchase seeds of
improved varieties, high efficiency pesticides and fertilizers; therefore, agricultural
production increases in a timely and appropriate manner. Few studies, however, have
focused on the impact of agricultural credit on wheat productivity in Pakistan. Bashir et al.
(2010) examined the impact of credit on wheat productivity by using Cobb–Douglas
production function and concluded that the impact of agricultural credit comes through
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using more wheat seeds per acre, more fertilizers and pesticides per acre, better irrigation
and more efficient land preparation. Similarly, Ahmad et al. (2015) observed that agricultural
credit has a significant impact on wheat productivity.
Despite the large amount of research on the role of agricultural credit, the researchers
treated agricultural credit as a whole. As we know, the loan can be classified into short-
term loan (STL), medium-term loan and long-term loan (LTL) according to the loan period.
The STL with a period of one year or less is actually working capital loan mainly used for
purchase of agricultural inputs such as seeds of improved varieties, fertilizers and
pesticides, while the medium- and LTLs with a period of more than one year are mainly
used to invest in fixed assets such as water pumps, tube wells, tractors, and other
agricultural related machinery. The policy-makers, bankers and farmers may care about
whether or not the STLs have a stronger effect on agricultural productivity than medium-
and LTLs. The present study differs from previous researches by attempting to compare
the effects of short-term and LTLs on wheat productivity in Sindh Pakistan (to simplify
the analysis, the medium- and LTLs are combined and called LTL). Small-scale farmers
demand both STL and LTLs. Therefore, it is very interesting and highly policy-related to
analyze and compare the effects of STL and LTL on wheat productivity. The remainder of
the paper is organized as follows: in sections 2 and 3, we describe the term-wise position of
agricultural credit disbursed by Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) in Sindh province
of Pakistan and province-wise wheat production and area under cultivation in Pakistan.
Section 4 reviews related literature on impact of credit on crop productivity. In section 5,
we give information on the data and methodology. Next, the estimation results are
presented and discussed in section 6. Finally, the conclusion and policy implications are
summarized in section 7.

2. Agricultural credits disbursed by ZTBL in Sindh, Pakistan

In Pakistan, formal agricultural credit is mainly provided to farmers through ZTBL,
commercial banks, domestic private banks, cooperatives and Khushhli Bank Limited.
These formal sources of credit are working under the supervision of State Bank of Pakistan.
The demand of agricultural sector for agricultural credit has been increasing for many years
in Pakistan. The ZTBL was established in 1951. ZTBL has a team of 1441 mobile credit
officers, 354 branches and 51 regional offices in all over the country. ZTBL is the first bank
of Pakistan erstwhile Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) that provides
various loan schemes including Awami Zarai Scheme (farm credit and non-farm credit),
Kissan Dost Loan Scheme, Sada Bahar Loan Scheme, One Window Operation Loan Scheme,
 AFR Asan Qarza Loan Scheme, Shamsi Tawanai Loan Scheme, Rural Development Loan
78,5 Scheme, and Crop Loan Insurance Scheme for the development of agriculture sector. ZTBL
is considered one of the most important formal sources of agricultural credit in Pakistan.
The basic aim of the ZTBL ever since its establishment entails granting loans to farming
communities for agricultural development in Pakistan. The total volume of agricultural
credit increased from PKR 10,260.5m to PKR 64,897.29m in Pakistan during the period
594 1996–2010. The same trend was found in the Punjab province of Pakistan where during the
same period the total amount of agricultural credit increased from PKR 8,143.54m to
PKR 52,995.25m. Similarly, agricultural credit of Sindh province increased steadily from
PKR 1,439.31m to PKR 8,093.51m. The province-wise agricultural credit disbursed by ZTBL
is depicted in Figure 1 (GOP, 2011).
Furthermore, ZTBL makes short-term, medium-term and LTLs to the farmers. STL is
made to the farmers for working capital that is mainly used to purchase improved variety
seeds, fertilizers, and pesticide. Medium- and LTLs are provided to farmers for fixed capital
that is used to purchase farm implements and improvement of the land tractor, tubewell,
farm machinery and land consolidation. The volume of short-term credit increased from
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PKR 6,122.45m to PKR 57,281.46m, a medium-term loan from PKR 522.26m to PKR
5,265.28m. In contrast, LTL decreased from PKR 3,615.79m to PKR. 2,350.55m from 1995 to
2014. The same pattern was found in Sindh province of Pakistan where during the same
period the short-term credit and medium-term credit increased from PKR 1,042.09m to
PKR 7,535.50m and PKR 92.82m to PKR 433.96m, respectively. There existed ups and
downs in long-term credit in Sindh province of Pakistan where this loan decreased from
PKR 304.40m in 1995 to PKR 124.05m in 2014. The term-wise position of agricultural credit
disbursed by ZTBL in Sindh province of Pakistan is shown in Figure 2 (GOP, 2011).
Purpose-wise, the loans disbursed to farmers can be classified into eight categories. The
loan for fertilizers was the highest annually, followed by seeds since 2001. The amount of total
loan increased from PKR 3,159.6m to PKR ¼ 27,495.1m from 1995 to 2010. The amount of loans
disbursed for fisheries was the lowest, increasing from PKR 7.0m to 3.1 million in Pakistan in
the period 1995–2010. The amount of loans used for fertilizers increased generally, from
PKR 488.5m to PKR 3,617.0m in the period 1995–2010 as depicted in Figure 3 (GOP, 2011).

3. Province-wise wheat production and area under cultivation in Pakistan

Wheat is the major cereal crop and it is a staple food of the Pakistani population. It is also a
globally traded commodity (Wajid, 2004). In Pakistan almost 80 percent of the farmers grow
wheat (Hussain et al., 2012). Figures 4 and 5 show the province-wise wheat production and

80,000 Pakistan
Punjab
70,000 Sindh
KPK
60,000
Balochistan
50,000
Rs m

40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000
Figure 1.
0
Province-wise
agricultural credit 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
disbursed by ZTBL Years
in Pakistan
Source: GOP (2011)
 12,000
Short-term loan
Effects of
10,000 Medium-term loan agricultural
Long-term loan
credit on wheat
8,000
productivity
6,000
Rs m

4,000 595
2,000
Figure 2.
0 Term-wise
agricultural credit
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 disbursed by ZTBL
Years in Sindh province
of Pakistan
Source: GOP (2011)
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Seed
Fertilizer
10,000 Pesticides
Dairy Farming
Poultry Farming
8,000 Fisheries
Tube Wells
Tractors
6,000 Total
Rs m

4,000

2,000
Figure 3.
0 Purpose-wise
agricultural credit
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 disbursed by ZTBL
Years
in Sindh province
of Pakistan
Source: GOP (2011)

20,000

18,000

16,000

14,000
Punjab
Sindh
″000 Tonnes

12,000
KPK
10,000 Balochistan
8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000

0
Figure 4.
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 Province-wise
Years
wheat production
in Pakistan
Source: GOP (2011)
 AFR 7,000
78,5
6,000
Punjab
5,000 Sindh

″000 Hectares
KPK
4,000 Balochistan

596 3,000

2,000

1,000

Figure 5. 0
Province-wise 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
area under wheat Years
cultivation in Pakistan
Source: GOP (2011)
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land area under cultivation over the period 1993–2011. It is clear that wheat production is
higher and cultivated area is larger in Punjab province as compared to those in Sindh, KPK
and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan, respectively. Punjab province is the largest wheat
producer, while Sindh is the second largest one in wheat production and area under
cultivation. Even though Sindh is not the largest producer, it is a good case study for wheat
production in Pakistan. Hence, we select Sindh province of Pakistan as the sampling area of
the research.

4. Review of literature
Credit has a positive impact on agricultural development and generates employment
opportunities in rural areas (CBCR, 2004). Agricultural household models not only show
that farm credit is required with the limitations of self-financing, but also explain the level
of output and the time interval between inputs and outputs (De Janvry and Sadoulet,
1995). World Bank (2006) reported that access of smallholder farmers to formal financial
services in rural areas is deficient in spite of the growth in credit distribution worldwide.
Boucher et al. (2006) explained that agricultural production constitutes 40 percent of the
credit reserved population in Honduras and Peru, with credit reserved production average
from 50 percent to 75 percent of the acquired input. Various researchers studied
impact of agricultural credit on agricultural productivity in different regions of the world
(e.g. Chaudhry and Hussain, 1986; Carter, 1989; Feder et al., 1990; Shrestha, 1992;
Zeller et al., 1998; Iqbal et al., 2003; Siddiqi and Baluch, 2009; Khan et al., 2007; Sial et al.,
2011; Chandio, Jiang, Joyo and Rehman, 2016; Chandio, Yuansheng, Sahito and Larik,
2016), and found that agricultural credit had a significantly positive impact on
agricultural productivity. No doubt, agriculture is the main means for improving the socio-
economic conditions of the farmers. In the context of developing countries, credit is an
important tool for increasing farm production (Okurut et al., 2005). The role of credit
markets in food production is recognized worldwide. In rural Pakistan, the importance of
credit for increasing agricultural production and improving socio-economic conditions of
the rural households has been highlighted by previous studies. For instance, Zuberi (1989)
found that 70 percent of total formal credit was used for the purchase of primary farm
inputs and concluded that increases in agricultural productivity can be explained by
changes in the number of farm inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. Likewise,
Malik et al. (1991) used a two-stage structure model where the probability of taking formal
credit is predicted in the first stage and the predicted value is used in the second stage to
 examine the impact of fertilizer use per acre. Chandio, Jiang, Joyo and Rehman (2016), Effects of
Chandio, Yuansheng, Sahito and Larik (2016) investigated the impact of institutional agricultural
credit, cultivated area, fertilizers consumption and water availability on wheat credit on wheat
productivity for the 1982 to 2011 period. Using the OLS method, the estimates show
that institutional credit, cultivated area and water availability have a positive impact on productivity
wheat productivity in Pakistan. Another study of von Braun et al. (1993) shows that
smallholders having access to formal credit have 37 percent higher input expenditures 597
than those who do not have access to formal credit. Similarly, other researchers have
found negative impact of lack of access to credit on farm production in developing
countries such as in Pakistan (Sial and Carter, 1996), India (Kochar, 1997), Kenya and
Ethiopia (Freeman et al., 1998), Peru (Guirkinger and Boucher, 2008), Vietnam (Duong and
Izumida, 2002) and Tunisia (Foltz, 2004). Thus, agricultural productivity can be boosted
through the timely availability of credit which enables farmers to purchase farm inputs
like high yield seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and modern farm machinery. Another
interesting debate is whether credit to small farms is more productive than credit to large
farms. Khandker and Faruqee (2003) observed that agricultural loan disbursed to
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small-scale farmers is more effective and suitable for farm production than that disbursed
to the large-scale farmers. The ADBP gave more facilities and loans to the large-scale
farmers than the small-scale farmers, while the loans given to small-scale farmers are
proved to be more productive than those given to the large-scale farmers. It also played a
very important role in the development of the lifestyle of the small-scale farmers and in
reducing their poverty too. Similarly, Iqbal et al. (2003) suggested that the formal sources
of credit should be encouraged to expand the agricultural credits for farming sector,
especially small-scale farmers. Another study by Fayaz et al. (2006) found that agricultural
credit schemes launched by ZTBL had a significantly positive impact on agriculture
production and income of the rural households. Nasir (2007) examined that agricultural
credit played an important role in agriculture development. It helps smallholders to
undertake new investments and adopt new agricultural technologies to enhance
agricultural productivity. Lack of access to formal credit has a negative effect on farm
production and well-being. Chandio et al. (2017) examined the smallholder farmers’ access
to agricultural credit in Sindh province of Pakistan. Using the probit model, estimates
reveal that a number of socio-economic factors including household size, farming
experience, off-income and availability of collateral significantly influenced on
smallholder farmers’ access to agricultural credit. Chachar (2007) investigated that
agricultural credit is the need of both smallholders and large holders for production and
development. In Pakistan, almost 95 percent farmers have a landholding size less
than 25 acres. In rural areas, the institutional agricultural credits are negligible except that
disbursed by ZTBL. Due to complicated procedure of documentation, small-scale
farmers lose their interest to apply for agricultural credit from formal sources.
Most smallholder farmers prefer to purchase the agricultural inputs at double prices
payable after the sales of their products. In the existing literature, there are few works that
have been done to compare effects of different terms of agricultural credit on wheat
productivity. Therefore, this study attempts to empirically analyze the effects of short
term and long term of agricultural credits on wheat productivity of small farms in
Sindh, Pakistan.

5. Data and methodology

5.1 Study area
Sindh is the second highest populated province in Pakistan with a total population of
42.4 million covering a land area of about 140, 914 square kilometers representing the third
largest province in Pakistan. Data of this study is derived from a wheat farmer survey in
 AFR three districts of Sindh in Pakistan (i.e. Shikarpur, Sukkur and Shaheed Benazirabad).
78,5 The main food crops cultivated in these districts are wheat, rice, potato, while the main cash
crops are sugarcane, cotton, tomato, chilies and onion (GOS, 2010).

5.2 Data and variables of the study

In this study, primary data were used. Data were collected from a sample of 180 wheat
598 growers who were selected from three districts of Sindh, Pakistan (i.e. Shikarpur, Sukkur
and Shaheed Benazirabad). The random sampling technique was applied for selection of
farms. The sample of this study contains only those wheat growers who have acquired
credits from ZTBL and Khushhali Bank (KB). Primary data were gathered using a modified
version of a structured questionnaire adapted from (Okunade, 2007). The questionnaire
covers both open and closed-ended questions. This study used yield of wheat as a
dependent variable while per acre costs of major agricultural inputs such as seed, land
preparation, fertilizers, plant protection, irrigation and labor and the amount of credit
obtained by the wheat growers from ZTBL and KB used as independent variables.
Also, various socio-economic characteristics of the borrowers including age, education level,
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household size, farming experience and landholding size were used. The analysis was done
using both software SPSS version 22 and STATA version 13.

5.3 Main research method

Several researchers used different econometric techniques to see impact of credit on
crop productivity in different parts of the world. Jacobson and Schedvin (2015) applied
logistic and OLS methods to empirically analyze the trade credit and the propagation of
corporate failure. The research has been published in world leading journal Econometrica.
Bashir (2010) used Cobb–Douglas production function to estimate the impact of
credit on rice productivity by treating institutional credit as a whole. Likewise, Ahmad
et al. (2015) applied Cobb–Douglas production function to examine the impact of
agricultural credit on wheat productivity in district Jhang, Pakistan. Afrin et al. (2017)
employed stochastic production frontier approach for assessing the impact of
financial inclusion on technical efficiency of paddy farmers in Bangladesh. Likewise,
Abdul-HananAbdallah (2016), utilized probit model at the first stage, while stochastic
frontier approach at the second stage, to estimate the impact of credit on technical
efficiency of Ghanaian maize farmers. The present study is different from the previous
studies, in which the researchers treated agricultural credit as a whole to see the impact of
credit on wheat productivity, but the present study tried to classify agricultural credits to
see the impacts of different term of loans on wheat productivity. Therefore, this study is
carried out with three steps. The first step is to estimate the effect of STL on
wheat productivity based on a multiple logarithm linear regression (MLLR). The second
step is to estimate the impact of LTL on wheat productivity based on a MLLR
with the same explanatory variables except the variable of LTL. The last step is to
compare the coefficients of STL as well as LTL on wheat productivity in the study area.
Following the previous literatures, in this study we used Cobb–Douglas production
function to examine the effects of agricultural credits on wheat productivity.
Cobb–Douglas production function approach helps to understand the impact of
explanatory variables (for instance, costs of farm inputs such as seed, land preparation,
fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, labor and amount of the short-term and the LTLs) on
wheat productivity. The model was used by (Bashir et al., 2010; Nadia and Chughtai, 2012;
Ahmad et al., 2015; Abdallah, 2016; Afrin et al., 2017). Cobb–Douglas production function
can be written as follows:
Y ¼ AX b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7
1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 (1)
 Taking the natural logarithm of Equation (1) and considering the case of seven explanatory Effects of
variables, Equation (1) converts to the following form: agricultural
LOGY ¼ b0 þb1 LOGX 1 þb2 LOGX 2 þb3 LOGX 3 þb4 LOGX 4 þb5 LOGX 5 credit on wheat
productivity
þb6 LOGX 6 þb7 LOGX 7 þmi (2)
This study examines the effects of STL and LTL on wheat productivity and for this
regression estimation we used Equation (2). After estimation of the effects of STL and LTL, 599
than now we compare the regression coefficients of STL and LTL by a dummy variable and
for this estimation the following equation is used:
LOGY ¼ b0 þb1 LOGX 1 þb2 LOGX 2 þb3 LOGX 3 þb4 LOGX 4 þb5 LOGX 5
þb6 LOGX 6 þb7 X 7 þmi (3)
In order to deal with the selection bias, this study used the instrumental variable (IV )
approach in the analyses estimated with a two-stage least squares (2SLS) method. The
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2SLS method has been widely used (Hahn and Hausman, 2002; Murray, 2006) since the
approach is suitable to deal with the problems of endogeneity caused by simultaneity,
measurement errors or omitted variables among others (Cameron and Pravin, 2009;
Greene, 2008; Wooldridge, 2009).

5.4 Hypothesis of the research

The following hypotheses have been formulated to examine the effect of the STL
in comparison with a medium- and LTL on the wheat productivity of small farms in
Sindh, Pakistan:
H0. STL has a no bigger impact on wheat productivity increase than LTL.
H1. STL has a bigger impact on wheat productivity increase than LTL.

6. Results and discussion

6.1 Descriptive analysis
Table I presents summary statistics of socio-economic characteristics of the surveyed
households. The descriptive statistics reveal that the average age of wheat farmers is
approximately 41 years. It can, therefore, be stated based on the results that the
majority of wheat farmers are in their youthful age and very energetic to carry out
the farming-related activities. Farmers, on average, had seven years of formal education,
which means that the educational level does not only improve the efficiency of the farmers
but also improve their capability to understand and adopt new farming techniques
(Olagunju and Adeyemo, 2007). Generally, it is understood that farmers who had more
experience of farming might be more efficient and productive through trial and error
(Olagunju and Adeyemo, 2007). The results show that the wheat farmers have on average

Variables Description Mean SD Min. Max.

Age Number of years of household head 41.1778 8.881061 26 69

Education Years of formal education of the head 6.80556 5.120991 0 16
Experience Experience of the sample respondents in years 28.3722 7.214224 18 50 Table I.
Household size Number of persons in the household 8.96667 2.46064 5 15 Socio-economic
Farm size Number of acres 13.2148 11.55887 2 62 characteristics of the
Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016) surveyed households
 AFR 28 years of farming experience. In the study area, the mean household size is nine people.
78,5 The average landholding in the study area is about 13 acres. The landholding size is an
important factor in accessing agricultural credit from formal sources and it is also a
symbol of high social status in the society which helps acquire credit from informal
financial channels (Hussain and Thapa, 2012; Saqib et al., 2016).
Credit is the basic component of all economic activities like agriculture. Availability
600 and adequate agricultural credit affect crop productivity in the way it facilitates the
farmers to purchase improved farm inputs at the sowing time. In Pakistan, formal credit
sources provide two main types of agricultural loans which include STL scheme and LTL
scheme. The short-term loan scheme is provided for the acquisition of farm inputs
including improved seed varieties, fertilizers and pesticides and the maximum
duration of this credit scheme is 18 months. The LTL scheme is provided for the
purchase of tubewell equipment, machinery and farm implements, reclamation of land,
building, and the period of this scheme is 5 to 7 years (Iqbal et al., 2003; Miah et al., 2006).
Table II reports that the majority (75.3 percent) of the respondents were STL users while
(24.7 percent) of the respondents were LTL users. The results show that the maximum
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amount of agricultural credit received by the LTL users was PKR 1,000,000.00
with a mean value of PKR 353,104.55 whereas the STL users obtained the maximum
amount of agricultural credit was PKR 700,000.00 with on average amount of credit was
PKR 253,407.31.
Table III presents summary statistics (minimum, maximum and mean) of the important
variables used in the empirical analysis. It reveals that the mean yield per acre of the
sampling farms was 38.18 maunds with a minimum of 16.00 maunds and a maximum of
60.00 maunds. The mean per acre seed used was 57.27 kgs while it ranged from 50.00 kgs
to 80.00 kgs per acre. Furthermore, the results show that average cost of fertilizers per
acre was PKR 9,871.333 with a minimum of PKR 3,700.00 and a maximum of PKR
13,700.00. Similarly, the mean cost of irrigation per acre including canals and tubewell was
PKR 1,650.872. Additionally, the average cost of pesticides per acre was PKR 1,008.88.

Loanees Frequency Percent Min. Max. Mean

STL users 135 75.3 20,000.00 700,000.00 253,407.31

Table II.
Amount of loan LTL users 45 24.7 70,000.00 1,000,000.00 353,104.55
obtained by STL Total 180 100.0 90,000.00 1,700,000.00 606,511.86
users and LTL Note: SLT, short-term loan users; LTL, long-term loan users
users (PKR) Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016)

Variables Unit Min. Max. Mean

Yield of wheat per acre Maunds 16.00 60.00 38.18

Seed used per acre Kg 50.00 80.00 57.27
Fertilizers cost per acre PKR 3,700.00 13,700.00 9,871.33
Pesticides cost per acre PKR 600.00 1,800.00 1,008.88
Irrigation cost per acre PKR 200.00 5,000.00 1,650.87
Labor cost per acre PKR 1,200.00 5,625.00 3,205.61
Table III. Amount of loan PKR 20,000.00 960,000.0 280,639.2
Summary statistics of Note: 1 maund ¼ 40 kilograms; kg ¼ kilogram; PKR ¼ Pakistani rupees
agricultural inputs Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016)
 Finally, the mean amount of agricultural credit was PKR 280,639.2 with a minimum of Effects of
PKR 20,000 and maximum of PKR 960,000.0 agricultural
Table IV reports the mean difference of the yield of wheat and key agricultural inputs credit on wheat
of STL users and LTL users in the study area. The mean area cultivated by STL users and
LTL users are 15.794 and 18.979 acres. The most notable finding of the study is that STL productivity
users produced on average 6 maunds per acre more yield of wheat than LTL users, which
is statistically significant at 1 percent level. Further findings of the study reveal that 601
the average 2.6 kg more seed used by STL users compared to LTL users and there is
negative significant difference at 10 percent. The cost differences in seed and fertilizers
are negative and significant at 1 percent and 5 percent, indicating that STL users had
invested more in purchasing improved wheat varieties and chemical fertilizers
compared to LTL users to get high wheat productivity and improve income. These
results are in line with the findings of Hussain and Thapa (2012), Ahmad et al. (2015) and
Saqib et al. (2016). They reported that agricultural credit was used for purchasing of
improved farm inputs. On the contrary, cost differences in land preparation, irrigation,
and labor are positive and significant at 1 and 10 percent, demonstrating that LTL users
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had invested more in land preparation, better irrigation and labor as compared to STL
users. A preliminary tendency can be found that the STL users have a preference
for short-term, quick-acting farm inputs while the LTL users have a preference for long-
term, long-acting ones.

6.2 Empirical analysis

6.2.1 Effects of short-term loan and long-term loan on wheat productivity with MLLR. First,
we have examined the effect of STL on wheat productivity and the results of MLLR
are presented in Table V. Cobb–Douglas production function has been used, so the
estimated coefficients are actually elasticities of production. The coefficient of STL is
(log STL ¼ 0.115604), which implies that wheat productivity will increase by 0.11 percent
if increasing the use of STL by 1 percent. The computed t-value for this coefficient is 5.00;
this shows that the coefficient is highly statistically significant at 5 percent level. The role
of formal agricultural credit in increasing farm production and improving the livelihood
of the farmers is recognized worldwide. The maximization of profit is the main aim of
every producer. It is evident that short-term credit is an important tool for increasing
wheat productivity and improving the living standards of wheat farmers. In rural areas of
Sindh, Pakistan, farmers preferred short-term credit to purchase major agricultural inputs
including improved variety seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and to invest in land improvement
and agricultural machinery. The short-term agricultural loan is normally disbursed by

Variables Short-term loan users Long-term loan users Difference t-value

Cultivated area (acre) 15.794 18.979 3.184 0.635

Wheat yield (maunds) 40.318 34.159 −6.159 −4.108***
Seed rate (kg) 57.159 54.545 −2.613 −1.826*
Seed cost (PKR) 2,856.250 2,685.454 −170.795 −1.985**
Land preparation cost (PKR) 4,132.954 4,565.909 432.954 2.693***
Fertilizers cost (PKR) 10,347.727 9,622.500 −725.227 −2.466***
Pesticides cost (PKR) 881.818 1,021.590 139.772 2.293
Table IV.
Irrigation cost (PKR) 1,890.909 2,237.886 346.977 1.865* Difference in yield
Labor cost (PKR) 2,108.181 2,744.045 635.863 3.598*** of wheat and key
Note: *,**,***Significant at 10, 5 and 1 percent levels, respectively inputs of STL users
Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016) and LTL users
 AFR STL LTL
78,5 Code Variables Coefficient t-value p-value Variables Coefficient t-value p-value

log X1 Seed cost 0.55613*** 3.62 0.001 Seed cost 0.65207*** 4.14 0.000
log X2 Land 0.15143 1.40 0.166 Land 0.18854* 1.68 0.096
preparation preparation
cost cost
602 log X3 Fertilizers cost 0.25450** 2.04 0.044 Fertilizers cost 0.28337** 2.20 0.031
log X4 Pesticides cost −0.00804 −0.11 0.914 Pesticides cost −0.05521 −0.71 0.479
log X5 Irrigation cost 0.01409 0.46 0.646 Irrigation cost 0.01702 0.54 0.593
log X6 Labor cost 0.37050*** 8.22 0.000 Labor cost 0.31899*** 7.18 0.000
log X7 Short-term loan 0.11560*** 5.00 0.000 Long-term loan 0.07923*** 4.15 0.000
C Constant −8.82855*** −5.80 0.000 Constant −8.95393*** −5.67 0.000
2
R 0.6652 0.6391
Adj R2 0.6366 0.6083
F-Statistic 23.28 20.74
Table V. ProbW F 0.0000 0.0000
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Effects of STL and Notes: SLT, short-term loan users; LTL, long-term loan users. *,**,***Significant at 10, 5 and 1 percent
LTL on wheat levels, respectively
productivity Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016)

formal financial institutions at the start of the sowing season of crops (Khan et al., 2007).
Unlike the previous studies (e.g. Javed et al., 2006; Bashir et al., 2010; Nadia and Chughtai,
2012; Ahmad et al., 2015; Chandio, Jiang, Joyo and Rehman, 2016; Chandio, Yuansheng,
Sahito and Larik, 2016) that treat the agricultural credit as a whole to estimate the
impact of credit on crop productivity, the present study classifies the agricultural credit
into the short-term and LTLs and compares their different effects on wheat productivity.
After estimating the effect of STL on wheat productivity, again we have examined the
effect of LTL. The results are presented in Table V. The coefficient of LTL is
(log LTL ¼ 0.0792379), indicating that per acre wheat productivity increases by
0.07 percent if the use of LTL increases by 1 percent. The calculated t-value for this
coefficient is 4.15; this reveals that the coefficient of LTL is statistically significant at
1 percent level. Khan et al. (2007) reported that agricultural credit has played a
pivotal role in enhancing agricultural production. Undoubtedly, agriculture is the
main means for improving the livelihood of the farmers. In the context of the developing
countries, institutional credit is an important tool for agricultural development
(Okurut et al., 2005). Wheat is the staple food in Pakistan and it contributes 1.9 percent
to the GDP and 9.6 percent of the value added in agriculture (GOP, 2016). Research reveals
that credit plays a significant role in increased yield of wheat. For example ( Jan et al.,
2017; Bashir et al., 2010; Ahmad et al., 2015), concluded that agricultural credit
has a significant effect on the yield of wheat. In rural areas of Pakistan, most of the
smallholder farmers grow wheat for subsistence only (Asim et al., 2015). In the study area,
farmers grow wheat for their home consumption as well as for marketing. Timely and
adequate availability of funds enables farmers to cultivate more farmland and benefits
more from the economy of scale. The value of the coefficient of multiple determinations i.e.
R-square is 0.6652; which implies that about 66 percent of the total change in wheat
productivity is explained by the seven independent variables. The calculated value
of F-Statistic is 23.28, which is highly significant and presents the overall significance of
the model.
When comparing the coefficients of the STL and the LTL, it shows that the STL has a
bigger elasticity than the LTL, tentatively implying that the STL has a stronger effect on
 enhancing the wheat yield given the wheat production level in Sindh. This also explains to Effects of
some extent that much more farmers apply for a STL in the sampling farms in Sindh, agricultural
Pakistan. Certainly, this tentative result needs confirmation by further test. credit on wheat
6.2.2 Comparative effects of STL and LTL on wheat productivity by a dummy variable.
Table VI reports the results for comparison of STL and LTL coefficients estimated using the
productivity
Cobb–Douglas production function. This study compares the size of dummy variable
(STL ¼ 1, 0 ¼ LTL) and concludes that the coefficient of STL variable is positive and highly 603
significant than the coefficient of LTL variable. This means that STL has a bigger and
stronger effect on wheat productivity in the study area. This finding is to some extent
similar to the findings of earlier studies (e.g. Iqbal et al., 2003; Bashir et al., 2010; Abdallah,
2016; Afrin et al., 2017). However, they treated agricultural credit as a whole. According to
the term of credit, the agricultural loan can be classified into STL, medium loan, and LTL.
Different terms of loan have different effects on crop productivity. STL is considered as a
very effective tool in agricultural production since it is frequently used to purchase
agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, animal feeds and medicines.
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Whereas, LTL is supplied for the purchase of farm equipment i.e. tubewell installations,
land preparation, tractors/power tiller together with necessary equipment like cultivator,
tiller, mouldboard plough, disc harrow, cage wheel, trailer, threshers, combine harvester,
cutter binders, spray machinery and drip irrigation, etc. Further, the estimated results show
that there is a positive relationship between per acre seed cost and wheat productivity for
Cobb–Douglas production function estimation at 1 percent level, which is consistent with
earlier studies Coelli and Battese (1996), Jaforullah and Premachandra (2003), Ogundari
(2008) and Abdallah (2016). Correspondingly, costs of main inputs such as land preparation,
fertilizers and labor positively and significantly affected wheat productivity in
Cobb–Douglas production function estimation. These results of the study are similar to
the findings of Jaforullah and Premachandra (2003), Ogundari (2008), Bashir et al. (2010) and
Buriro et al. (2015). Recently, in developing countries like Pakistan, smallholder farmers’
demand for agricultural credit has been increasing. Smallholder farmers need more funds
for production and consumption (Khan and Hussain, 2011; Jan and Khan, 2012). Due to a
number of constraints like lack of collateral, high interest rates and lack of land ownership
smallholder farmers cannot access agricultural credit from formal sources and most
of the smallholder farmers rely on informal credit sources (Akudugu, 2012; Ajagbe, 2012;
Nouman et al., 2013; Hananu et al., 2015; Fecke et al., 2016; Chandio et al., 2017).

Code Variables Coefficient Robust SE t-value p-value

log X1 Seed cost 0.5541732*** 0.1229697 4.51 0.000

log X2 Land preparation cost 0.2079872*** 0.0833446 2.5 0.014
log X3 Fertilizers cost 0.4431192 0.1066721 4.15 0.000
log X4 Pesticides cost −0.1275618** 0.0641132 −1.99 0.048
log X5 Irrigation cost 0.0122767 0.0215398 0.57 0.569
log X6 Labor cost 0.2814387*** 0.0507716 5.54 0.000
X7 DummySTL 0.1016653*** 0.0289059 3.52 0.001
C Constant −8.031357*** 1.168912 −6.87 0.000
F-statistic ¼ 29.43
ProbWF ¼ 0.000
R2 ¼ 0.605 Table VI.
Root MSE ¼ 0.18496 Comparison effects of
Note: **,***Significant at 5 and 1 level, respectively STL and LTL on
Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016) wheat productivity
 AFR 6.2.3 Results of instrumental variables (2SLS) regression. There may be a reverse causal
78,5 relationship between credit acquisition and wheat yield. High yield farmers may be
observed by the bankers and hence have a higher probability of obtaining credits than low
yield farmers. In order to solve the endogenous problem, this study used IV method. The
distance from the village to the bank and the availability of transports are selected as IV. IV
must satisfy two conditions: In linear models, there are two main requirements for using IV.
604 At the first stage, the IV must be correlated with the endogenous explanatory variables,
conditional on the other covariates. If this correlation is strong, then the IV is said to have a
strong first stage. At the second stage, the instrument cannot be correlated with the error
term in the explanatory equation, conditional on the other covariates. In other words, the
instrument cannot suffer from the same problem as the original predicting variable. If this
condition is met, then the instrument is said to satisfy the exclusion restriction. First of all,
considering high transaction costs due to long distance from banks and high transportation
costs farmers are discouraged to apply for credit from formal sources and may turn to the
informal sources of credit such as fellow farmers, friends, and relatives. At the same time,
the distance from the banks will not affect the farmer’s production efficiency. Similarly,
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various types of transport can provide convenience for farmers to reach the banks.
Meanwhile, the types of transportation to the banks don’t have an impact on wheat
productivity. Based on the above analysis, we used 2SLS method. We used the Stata13
software to perform a 2SLS regression to obtain the regression results. By comparing the
estimation results of Cobb–Douglas production function and 2SLS (Tables V and VII), It is
evident that after considering the endogeneity problem, the coefficient of the STL in 2SLS
becomes larger than in Cobb–Douglas production function regression model. This further
suggests that the STL is far more conducive to improving wheat production efficiency than
the LTL. The STL has a coefficient of 0.1636604, implying that one percent of increase in the
STL will enhance the wheat yield by 0.16 percent.
6.2.4 Constraints to credit access by wheat farmers. During the field survey of this study
we asked wheat farmers several questions about problems they faced during the
assessment of agricultural credit from formal sources. Results in Table VIII show that
34 percent of wheat farmers were faced with the problem of cumbersome procedure of
documentation for the credit. As a rule, the financial institutions provide agricultural
credits on the basis of “Pass Book.” Whereas the process of acquiring pass book for
agricultural credits is very tedious, which usually takes three to four months. Likewise,
47 wheat growers (26.1 percent) reported that they were faced with the problem of delay in

Code Variables Coefficient t-value P-value

log X1 Seed cost 0.4252736*** 2.96 0.003

log X2 Land preparation cost 0.2977594*** 4.06 0.000
log X3 Fertilizers cost 0.3242725*** 3.58 0.000
log X4 Pesticides cost −0.0608621 −1.32 0.187
log X5 Irrigation cost 0.0479007*** 2.74 0.006
log X6 Labor cost 0.4962039*** 10.93 0.000
log X7 Short-term loan 0.1636604* 1.74 0.083
C Constant −7.434969*** −7.86 0.000
R2 ¼ 0.6456
Root MSE ¼ 0.17125
Table VII. Wald χ2 ¼ 314.01
Regression results ProbW χ2 ¼ 0.0000
of instrumental Note: *,***Significant at 10 and 1 percent level, respectively
variables (2SLS) Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016)
 loan disbursement. Due to non-cooperation and lengthy procedure of documentation, Effects of
smallholder farmers are discouraged to apply for an agricultural loan from financial agricultural
intuitions. Credit plays a significant role in the farming sector. Therefore, the timely and credit on wheat
easy access of agricultural credit is the quickest way to increase wheat productivity.
Additionally, 38 respondents (21.1 percent) complained about the high interest rate productivity
charged by financial institutions. For instance, ZTBL charged a rate of interest by 14 to 15
percent on production loan as well as on development loan. Whereas KB charged 605
borrowing farmers an interest rate of 20 percent. Similarly, 34 farmers (18.9 percent)
complained that they had to bribing the loan officers in order to obtain credits from formal
sources. The findings of this study are consistent with the findings of Malik and Nazli
(1999), Bashir and Azeem (2008), Akram et al. (2008), Phillip et al. (2009), Tagar and
Panhwar (2010), Ugwumba and Omojola (2013), Verteramo Chiu et al. (2014) and Duniya
and Adinah (2015).

7. Conclusion and policy implications

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Maximization of crop productivity is the main aim of every producer. It is a fact that
formal agricultural credit has a positive and significant effect on production levels and
plays an important role in enhancing crop productivity. This empirical study evaluates
the impact of STL and LTL on wheat productivity of small farms in Sindh, Pakistan.
In this study primary data was used. Data was collected from a sample of one hundred and
eighty wheat farmers who were selected from the three districts of Sindh, Pakistan
(i.e. Shikarpur, Sukkur and Shaheed Benazirabad). The random sampling technique was
used for selection of the sample. The sample size of this study consists of only those wheat
growers who have borrowed STL or LTL from ZTBL and KB. Based on the findings, this
study indicates that the majority of loanees are STL users, while the major complaints
about the loan disbursement comprise of cumbersome procedures, delay in disbursement
and high interest rate. The study reconfirmed that agricultural credit has a positive and
highly significant effect on wheat productivity, while STL has a stronger effect on wheat
productivity than LTL in the study area. The reasons behind the phenomenon may be the
significantly higher usage of agricultural inputs like improved variety seeds and
fertilizers which can be transformed into the wheat yield in the same year. However, the
LTL user has a significantly higher investment in land preparation, irrigation and plant
protection, which may lead to higher wheat production in the coming years. Based on the
findings, the current study recommends that formal credit sources including ZTBL, KB,
and other Commercial Banks should vigorously develop the STL for boosting up the crop
productivity and increase the welfare of rural households. However, for the sustainable
increase in wheat yield, there is also a need to accompanying the STL with the LTL and
there may be a superimposed effect of the both. Also, formal credit sources should
appropriately reduce the interest rate of agricultural credit, and introduce a special
interest rate subsidy policy for wheat crop since the profit of wheat production is low,
whereas the wheat is the staple food for the people.

Nature of Constraints Frequency Percentage

The cumbersome procedure of documents 61 33.9

Bribery 34 18.9
Delay in loan disbursement 47 26.1
High interest rate 38 21.1 Table VIII.
Total 180 100.0 Problems stated
Source: Researchers’ own calculations, Field Survey (2016) by the loanees
 AFR Acknowledgements
78,5 The funding was provided by the Soft Science Program of Sichuan Department of
Sci-technology: 18RKX0773. The authors would like to thank the College of Economics,
Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China for its financial support of this study.
The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers and Prof. Dr CalumTurvey (Chief Editor
of Agricultural Finance Review) for insightful comments and suggestions, which led to many
606 improvements contained in this paper. The authors are deeply grateful to the editors
and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, which improved the quality of the
paper greatly. The authors acknowledge and assume responsibility for any other mistakes
or errors within the manuscript.

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Further reading
610 Asogwa, B.C., Ihemeje, J.C. and Ezihe, J.A.C. (2011), “Technical and allocative efficiency analysis of
Nigerian rural farmers: implication for poverty reduction”, Agricultural Journal, Vol. 6 No. 5,
pp. 243-251.
Chandio, A.A., Yuansheng, J. and Koondher, M.A. (2015), “Raising maize productivity through
agricultural credit a: case study of commercial banks in Pakistan”, European Journal of Business
and Management, Vol. 7 No. 32, pp. 159-165.

Corresponding author
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Yuansheng Jiang can be contacted at: [email protected]

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