It is important that borrowed funds be invested for productive purposes, and the additional incomes generated be
used to repay loans to have sustainable and viable production processes and credit institutions. However, failure by
farmers to repay their loans on time or to repay them at all has been a serious problem faced by both agricultural
credit institutions and smallholder farmers. Poor loan repayment in developing countries has become a major
problem in agricultural credit administration, especially to smallholders who have limited collateral capabilities
(Okorie, 2004).
Loan default problem has been a tragedy as it leads to a system failure to implement appropriate lending strategies
and credible credit policies. In addition, it discourages the financial institutions from refinancing the defaulting
members, which put the defaulters once again into vicious circle of low productivity. Eastern Hararghe is one
amongst autonomous zone of Oromiya Regional State. In this administrative zone, the Regional Government
through Oromiya Saving and Credit Share Company, and Non-Governmental organizations have extended credit
facilities to farming households to narrow the gap between the required and the owned capital to use improved
agricultural technologies that would increase production and productivity. However, there is a serious loan
repayment problem in the area. Therefore, this study was undertaken to analyze how non-default and default rates