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While cities piloting China's Social Credit System attract attention, rural areas in China are experimenting with reputation-based credit systems called 'banks of virtue'. These local institutions unlock cheap loans and other benefits for citizens who prove virtuous character. Based on empirical data, this article investigates how banks of virtue combine techniques of metrics known from capitalist credit systems with an inherently localized and personal evaluation procedure. As hybrid forms of organizing access to credit, this article argues, banks of virtue offer an alternative, rural answer to the 'right to credit' that emerged in debates concerning capitalist economies. While they combine multiple goals of the national rural revitalization and Social Credit System strategies, such as the creation of a 'civilized' rural society and the allocation of credit to small businesses and households, their reliance on citizen participation casts doubts over their capacity to achieve these goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The SHG Bank linkage programme has enabled access to formal credit to a large segment of the rural poor, the majority of whom were women. Formal rural financial institutions like commercial banks, RRBs, co-operatives banks, and other agencies like NGOs and MFIs are actively involved in the SHG bank linkage programme. Hence the present study was undertaken to analyze the share of credit disbursement by various institutional agencies to the rural poor and to understand the importance of microfinance in this reference. The scope of rural credit is wide as it consists of not only agriculture credit but also lending to the priority sector. As a result, the region-wise disbursement of rural credit was studied and analyzed to find out the trends in the growth of priority sector advances as compared to the total bank credit outstanding over the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to analyze the level of access to public credit of small corn producers in the lake regions of Chapala, Pátzcuaro, and Cuitzeo in the state of Michoacán, within the framework of the neoliberal financial policy adopted in the years 1981-2022 compared to the post-revolutionary period. This productive sector is mainly characterized by having low economic income, little land area, and lack of equipment and machinery, and not being subject to credit, therefore, the members of this sector share the condition of exclusion from financing for production. The methodology used consisted of collecting historical information regarding the operation of public rural financial institutions created in the post-revolutionary period and the neoliberal transition that they experienced in the eighties. Also in obtaining data through the application of 611 surveys to identify some elements that explain the current exclusion from public credit of small corn producers in the lake regions of Michoacán. The results reveal that this productive sector has a low level of access due to the changes in public credit policy promoted by federal governments since the 1990s. These caused radical institutional modifications in the way agricultural credit operates and contributed to the current limited availability of public credit aimed at small corn producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract Access to rural credit has been persistently heterogeneous across Brazilian regions over time. This work aimed to estimate the regional effects of rural credit on agricultural production due to the heterogeneity observed in access to credit. Based on data from the 2017 Agricultural Census and climate variables, the effect of rural credit was estimated by standard regressions, combined with the entropy balancing technique. The results show positive and significant effects of rural credit on Brazilian agricultural production, even after controlling for observed covariates. This result was consistent even after balancing the covariates with regard to entropy. The effect of rural credit proved to be heterogeneous across Brazilian regions, being positive and significant for regions with greater access to rural credit and statistically null in less credit-intensive regions. Furthermore, estimates show that technical assistance is an important transmission mechanism of the rural credit effect.

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rice agriculture provides millions of households with a steady source of income and employment. However, for small and marginal farmers, the exorbitant cost of production inputs presents a formidable obstacle in their pursuit of acquiring it. Credit constraints are a significant impediment to the adoption of agricultural technologies. Therefore, this paper identifies the determinant of access to rural credit and its impact on Boro rice production technology adoption in Bangladesh using cross-sectional data. The study employed probit regression, propensity score matching (PSM), inverse probability weighting (IPW), and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) techniques. The findings indicate that age, family size, working members, and involvement in safety net programs negatively and significantly influence access to rural credit, while earning persons in the family, literacy, rice farming experience, remittance, and total income positively influence access to rural credit. The positive and significant ATT values suggested that access to rural credit has a positive and significant effect on technology adoption and the level of technology use. It was also found that access to rural credit has a heterogeneous effect. In particular, non-government organization (NGO) credit has a more significant impact on technology adoption than formal bank credit. Access to credit and the adoption of agricultural technologies can be greatly improved with the help of a location-specific rural credit policy and strong monitoring from the formal banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is central in Brazil's political and socioeconomic history; agricultural exploitation is mainly conducted by families, creating a type of agriculture developed in small rural properties named family farming. In Brazil, family farming accounts for a very diverse group of businesses, of which 91% of all the establishments are family establishments that build different production strategies according to different degrees of potentiality and precariousness. This study evaluated the role of rural credit policies in developing family farming activities with agricultural income generation in northeastern Brazil on various family-based farms. For this, the authors conducted a case study in Pernambuco, analyzing the spatial relationship between the distribution of family farms and the access to credit resources from the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming from 2006 to 2017 and the change probabilities in types of farms considering the next 10 years, given the maintenance of conditionsreported in the analyzed period. Results indicatedthe weakening of productive potentiality of farming activities in family farms in Pernambuco, with a significant change in the distribution of family farm types, a reduction in the participation of Specialized Farms and an expressive growth of Farms with Rural Residents. The findings also indicated the relevance of access to rural credit in the supply of production needs of different family farm types and development of farming activities with income generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the long‐ and short‐run effects of rural credit on the gross value added of agricultural output in Brazil. We apply the dynamic vector error correction model (VECM) to the estimation and testing. The main finding is that there is a positive long‐run relationship between agricultural sector production and loans from financial institutions to the agricultural sector. The long‐run elasticity estimated was 0.44, implying that an increase of 1% in rural credit leads to a 0.44% increase in the agricultural sector's GDP. This result supports the policy of rural credit as a crucial institutional instrument to strengthen the agricultural sector and as an important factor to boost the country's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe allocation of agricultural credit is an exceptional strategy for ensuring sustainable agricultural production. It increases farmers’ purchasing power and technical efficiency. In this study, we examine the long-run impact of agricultural credit on wheat production in nine major wheat—producing provinces of China from 1992–2020. The research also takes into account agrochemical inputs (such as fertilizer and pesticide), planting area, agricultural machinery, and rural labor force. Several advanced econometric techniques, such as cross—sectional dependence (CSD), Westerlund co—integration (second—generation approach), Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), One—step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), and panel causality tests, are utilized to conduct empirical estimation. The findings show that agricultural credit significantly increases wheat production. It has been proved that agricultural credit is an important factor in increasing grain production and ensuring food sustainability. Regarding agrochemical inputs, fertilizer use positively affects wheat production, whereas pesticide usage negatively affects wheat production. Other determinants influencing wheat production included planting area, agricultural machinery, and rural labor force. China’s agricultural credit and related policies have played a significant role in grain production since the country’s reform and opening up. China must consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and further develop the countryside under the current rural revitalization and food security strategies. Agricultural credit is essential in this process and should be expanded.

This study investigates the impact of microcredit access on income and multidimensional poverty in rural Assam, India. Employing a quasi-experimental design and collecting primary data, the study utilises the probit model for empirical analysis. The findings indicate that equivalence factors influence individual welfare levels. Moreover, households receiving microcredit from semiformal and informal sources exhibit a higher incidence of poverty. Informal borrowers experience a more significant poverty gap compared to semiformal borrowers. However, the study does not find statistically significant evidence to confirm a poverty impact from pooled and formal credit sources. The prevalence of income and multidimensional poverty among semiformal and informal borrowers suggests that these individuals rely on borrowing to finance their children’s education and medical expenses. This points to a failure of the government’s universal education and health policies to uplift vulnerable segments of society. The study recommends providing credit facilities exclusively for productive economic activities to rural residents, accompanied by adequate market linkages.

Copyright of Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates the relation between the types of collateral offered in rural loans in Brazil and the access to credit, loan conditions and default rates. We use a proprietary database of rural loans from one of the largest private banks in Brazil containing more than 110 thousand loan observations. Our results show that the use of fiduciary lien improves the access to loans for more opaque borrowers (i.e., those with shorter relationship with the bank). This type of collateral gives the bank the ability to seize collateral quicker, reducing loss given default, even if these borrowers are riskier, given that they present higher default rates on average. Our results also show that loan conditions are less restrictive as relationship length increases, and that this effect is more intense among loans collateralized by fiduciary lien. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural credit policies have a strong impact on food production and food security. The attribution of credit policies to agricultural production is one of the main problems preventing the guarantee of agricultural expansion. In this work, we conduct family typology analysis applied to a set of research data to characterize different regions. Through genetic programming, a model was developed using user-defined terms to identify the importance and priority of each criterion used for each region. Access to credit results in economic growth and provides greater income for family farmers, as observed by the results obtained in the model for the Sul region. The Nordeste region indicates that the cost criterion is relevant, and according to previous studies, the Nordeste region has the highest number of family farming households and is also the region with the lowest economic growth. An important aspect discovered by this research is that the allocation of rural credit is not ideal. Another important aspect of the research is the challenge of capturing the degree of diversity across different regions, and the typology is limited in its ability to accurately represent all variations. Therefore, it was possible to characterize how credit is distributed across the country and the main factors that can influence access to credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Diversitas Journal is the property of Diversitas Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Brazilian Review of Economics & Agribusiness / Revista de Economia e Agronegócio is the property of Brazilian Review of Economics & Agribusiness / Revista de Economia e Agronegocio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rice agriculture provides millions of households with a steady source of income and employment. However, for small and marginal farmers, the exorbitant cost of production inputs presents a formidable obstacle in their pursuit of acquiring it. Credit constraints are a significant impediment to the adoption of agricultural technologies. Therefore, this paper identifies the determinant of access to rural credit and its impact on Boro rice production technology adoption in Bangladesh using cross-sectional data. The study employed probit regression, propensity score matching (PSM), inverse probability weighting (IPW), and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) techniques. The findings indicate that age, family size, working members, and involvement in safety net programs negatively and significantly influence access to rural credit, while earning persons in the family, literacy, rice farming experience, remittance, and total income positively influence access to rural credit. The positive and significant ATT values suggested that access to rural credit has a positive and significant effect on technology adoption and the level of technology use. It was also found that access to rural credit has a heterogeneous effect. In particular, non-government organization (NGO) credit has a more significant impact on technology adoption than formal bank credit. Access to credit and the adoption of agricultural technologies can be greatly improved with the help of a location-specific rural credit policy and strong monitoring from the formal banking sector.

ABSTRACT: Agriculture is central in Brazil’s political and socioeconomic history; agricultural exploitation is mainly conducted by families, creating a type of agriculture developed in small rural properties named family farming. In Brazil, family farming accounts for a very diverse group of businesses, of which 91% of all the establishments are family establishments that build different production strategies according to different degrees of potentiality and precariousness. This study evaluated the role of rural credit policies in developing family farming activities with agricultural income generation in northeastern Brazil on various family-based farms. For this, the authors conducted a case study in Pernambuco, analyzing the spatial relationship between the distribution of family farms and the access to credit resources from the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming from 2006 to 2017 and the change probabilities in types of farms considering the next 10 years, given the maintenance of conditionsreported in the analyzed period. Results indicatedthe weakening of productive potentiality of farming activities in family farms in Pernambuco, with a significant change in the distribution of family farm types, a reduction in the participation of Specialized Farms and an expressive growth of Farms with Rural Residents. The findings also indicated the relevance of access to rural credit in the supply of production needs of different family farm types and development of farming activities with income generation.

This research aimed to investigate whether the use of rural credit policies is correlated with the income formation of rural producers. Through a survey, an online questionnaire was applied to rural producers in the municipality of Salgueiro, Pernambuco. From the linear regression model, a positive relationship was evidenced between the use of rural credit and the value of production with a difference, on average, of 17.4% greater in income compared to those who do not use this policy in the municipality of Willow tree. However, although family farming has a large share in the Brazilian economy and through the available credits, they are able to expand their production, there is still a need for greater investment in public policies for rural management education, ensuring an improvement in the quality of life of the people who live there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Program to Strengthen Family Farming (Pronaf), besides being a credit policy with specific conditions for family farming, is considered a milestone in the recognition of the social category. The program has been in existence for over twenty years in all regions of the country and is present in practically all municipalities. In this sense, recognizing the importance of the program for the promotion of family agriculture, the study aims to analyze the distribution of resources of the National Program to Strengthen Family Agriculture in the Region of the Fourth Italian Immigration Colony -RS, from 1999 to 2018. Specifically, it sought to: a) present the volume of resources accessed by family farmers; and b) verify whether farmers have accessed the resources for funding or investment. The study was carried out using the inductive method, through bibliographic research and analysis of secondary data obtained through the official site of the Central Bank of Brazil. The main results indicate the concentration of resources in the municipalities of Nova Palma, Restinga Sêca and Agudo, municipalities with the highest number of family farmers. Silveira Martins and São João do Polêsine also stand out, being the municipalities with the least access to Pronaf resources. In addition, most of the credit accessed by family farmers in the region is being used for funding, following a similar behavior when compared to the national level.

Rural credit policies have a strong impact on food production and food security. The attribution of credit policies to agricultural production is one of the main problems preventing the guarantee of agricultural expansion. In this work, we conduct family typology analysis applied to a set of research data to characterize different regions. Through genetic programming, a model was developed using user-defined terms to identify the importance and priority of each criterion used for each region. Access to credit results in economic growth and provides greater income for family farmers, as observed by the results obtained in the model for the Sul region. The Nordeste region indicates that the cost criterion is relevant, and according to previous studies, the Nordeste region has the highest number of family farming households and is also the region with the lowest economic growth. An important aspect discovered by this research is that the allocation of rural credit is not ideal. Another important aspect of the research is the challenge of capturing the degree of diversity across different regions, and the typology is limited in its ability to accurately represent all variations. Therefore, it was possible to characterize how credit is distributed across the country and the main factors that can influence access to credit.

Credit was scarce and expensive in colonial India. Existing explanations assume a lack of market competition let moneylenders charge high interest rates. The article challenges this view and constructs a novel framework to explain the rationality and strategies of lenders. Using new evidence from the Madras Presidency, the study finds that the interconnected issues of climate volatility and enforcement costs shaped the supply and prices of credit. Climate volatility and uncertain seasonal incomes led to high default rates. Enforcement of contracts through courts was expensive and not appropriate where there was no wilful breach of contract. Moneylenders responded to risk in innovative ways. They rationed credit and imposed inflexible enforcement terms in the dry regions that faced higher climatic risk, but used contracts and flexible pricing strategies in the irrigated zones where risks were lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on early modern European land markets investigates the involvement of kinship networks and possible links between land transfers and rural credit. In context of our project "The Role of Wealth in Defining and Constituting Kinship Spaces", I found proceedings settling post-mortem successions as well as many commercial land transactions in the court district of Sonnenburg in the Puster valley. These inheritance and purchase contracts have one thing in common: they had to be financed and often this was done by a transfer of existing liabilities secured on the land. This leads to the question of affordability. For, especially in context of a variant of impartible inheritance, succession involved assuming existing debts and new obligations with compensation payments of ceding siblings. But not all succession decisions or conveyances' terms of payment were recorded in the court books. I will complement the limited quantitative data with case studies that show the entanglement of commercial and succession related transfers to ask who had access to transfers and how they were financed. In particular, I will use case studies that reveal the importance of family money – specifically women's marriage portions – and complex negotiations in financing land transactions. Looking at financing as a social practice shows how careful planning and flexible horizontal lending structures enabled multiple land transactions in early modern Tyrol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between the uptake of credit and household vulnerability in rural Vietnam in terms of two main vulnerability indicators—vulnerability as expected poverty (VEP) and vulnerability to food poverty (VFP)—using data from the 2012 Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey. VEP and VFP are examined under two decompositions, idiosyncratic vulnerability and covariate vulnerability, by constructing a multilevel structure model. The analysis accounts for two critical problems (selection bias and endogeneity) through an endogenous switching regression model. Generally, the results indicate the positive impacts of credit uptake on poverty alleviation and VEP reduction. Nevertheless, credit uptake increases VFP. Noticeably, compared to other categories of credit, productive credit is found to be more pronounced in reducing either idiosyncratic or covariate vulnerability. There is also suggestive evidence that although credit has positive effects overall, taking on either formal or semiformal credit has negative impacts on both poverty and vulnerability reduction. Hence, towards formal credit, government policies should concentrate more on credit costs and support preferential loan rates for poor rural households for productive purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural credit distribution presents a social characteristic of aid in income distribution and regional development. The State of Paraná is an important participant in national agriculture, with rural credit also presenting great relevance. As an example, in 2015 the state presented about 18% of the national rural credit, according to the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB). The aim of this article is to analyze the use of rural credit by municipalities in Paraná between 2013 and 2018 through a Regional Rural Credit Index (IRCR), generated from BCB data. The results indicate the existence of spatial autocorrelation in the allocation of rural credit in the municipalities examined, with concentration of rural credit in relative terms mainly around identified regional centers. This result highlights the great importance of the primary sector, especially for the areas of the interior of the State. The spatial concentration of rural credit also indicates the possible relevant action of rural cooperatives in the territory of Paraná. Finally, the work shows a great potential for expansion in the level of agricultural businesses in some regions of Paraná, such as the mesoregions of the Northwest and Central North. Both regions are composed of municipalities that contribute with the added value of the rural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the State, although presenting IRCR below the unit in the analyzed period, which indicates possible potential for expansion of the credit in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The model of technical assistance and rural extension services (ATER) institutionalized in Brazil since the 50s of the 20th century expanded geographically thanks to the association with the offer of rural credit, widely available and subsidized, especially in the 70s, when the organizations of the called the Sibrater system were nationalized. Economic and fiscal crises in the 80s and 90s disorganized Sibrater, which collapsed, at the same time that private service providers became more numerous. Through a bibliographic and documentary research, with a descriptive objective, the article aims to analyze the main legal frameworks and public policies that encourage and condition the public and private offer of Ater services. Among the results of the analysis, it is possible to affirm that the 21st century, especially the second decade, faced a reorganization of the system, with the creation in law of a national policy and an executive agency to implement it, in parallel with an increasing fund supplies, at least until 2015, when a new economic and fiscal crisis weakened the state capabilities. However, the 2006 and 2017 Agricultural Censuses showed that 80% of agricultural establishments remain without technical guidance, which gives rise to a re-discussion of the legal frameworks that support Ater services, so that they receive adequate state funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Informe Gepec is the property of Informe Gepec and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Regardless of the several measures implemented by the South African government to curb food insecurity, the majority of rural households are still experiencing food insecurity at a provincial level, particularly in Limpopo Province. This could be because of the high unemployment rate that is becoming worse in the province. Even though many members of rural households have obtained tertiary education, most individuals still find it difficult to secure jobs. This results in many rural households depending on social grants to make a living, and it is acknowledged that these social grants are not enough to provide for a household's food needs. This study was conducted in the Mopani district municipality. A multistage sampling procedure was used, and villages were selected based on probability proportionate to size, making a total of 173 rural households. The objectives of the study were to profile the socio-economic characteristics of rural households, to identify the food security status of these households, and to determine the factors that influence food security among them. To analyse the data, the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale, descriptive statistics and the multinomial logistic regression model were used. From the findings of the study, the results revealed that the majority of rural households in the Mopani district municipality were found to be moderately to severely food insecure as per logistic regression estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal sources of credit prevail in the rural areas of developing countries, primarily catering to farm households - hence, this study was conducted to analyze the determinants of rural credit access decisions among small-scale rice farmers in Calintaan, Occidental Mindoro, the Philippines, using binary logistic regression. A total of 74 randomly selected farm household heads who have direct supervision in rice farming activities participated in the study. The binary logistic regression results indicated that gender, age, and education were the significant determinants of the rural credit decision. Informal sources of credit play a vital role in promoting the small-scale agricultural productivity of rice and they serve as the immediate source of agricultural financing when there is a shortage or absence of accessible formal credit providers. In light of the findings, this research recommends other factors, working sectors, and settings for future research. Some policy recommendations were also suggested, such as the formulation of a rural credit policy that would fit the socioeconomic status of the farmers and a government policy to bridge the gap between small-scale rice farmers and formal credit institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]