unaware of the availability of financial services or of the conditions
under which these are available. Moreover, small farmers have to make
many visits to banks at office hours which may not be convenient to
them, while banks lack essential information on the credit history of
potential clients, the viability of on-farm investments, the self-financing
capacity of farmers and their repayment capability.
Transaction costs in rural areas are high compared to urban areas, due
to problems of collateral provision, low and irregular income flows and
the small amounts involved in the transactions. Adams and Nehman,
identified three types of borrower transaction costs : non-interest
charges by lenders; loan application procedures that require the applicant to deal with agents outside the banking system, such as agricultural extension staff, local officials and cosigners; and travel expenses and
time spent promoting and following up the application (von Pischke,
1991). Due to these factors the costs of reaching the rural poor and
small scale farmers are high for financial institutions, which charge high
interest rates when compared to market rates in the formal banking sector. The overall costs of formal borrowing therefore, in many cases,
may result in borrowing from the informal sector becoming more attractive to small-scale farmers. The challenge still remains to design and
expand the provision of loan products to better service the farming community and to lower transaction costs to improve the terms and conditions of lending for agriculture. This will demand improved management of existing rural financial intermediaries, and innovations or ‘new
methods’ in financial intermediation for the agricultural sector.
Banks may decide to open rural branches, but the demand for bank services needs to be large enough to warrant setting up such a rural branch
network. Efforts to expand the range of financial services by including
savings mobilization and current accounts may lead to economies of
scale and thus to higher efficiency. Simplification of loan procedures
may minimize the travel time and costs for individual borrowers, while
group lending based on joint and several liability of group members and
liaison with NGOs are other means of reducing costs. In all cases, the
availability of decentralized financial intermediation services is a precondition for effective on-farm lending.