Thesis, Undergraduate (BS Agribusiness Economics)--University of the Philippines, Mindanao

The Philippines has wide plantation of coconut and has great potential due to its high demand globally. However, despite the big potential of coconut in the country, large number of coconut farmers is still living in poverty. To address this problem, the government promoted poverty alleviation strategies. One of it is the provision of micro finance. However, access of small farmers to microfinance has been very limited. Hence, this study was conducted to determine the factors that affect access of farmers specifically on small coconut farmers. 80 coconut farmers in Calinan and Tugbok District were taken as respondents thru purposive random sampling. Based from the survey, out of 80 respondents, 22 borrowed to micro finance. 43 borrowed to informal creditors and 15 are purely non-borrowers. To determine the factors that affect access to micro finance , the logic model was employed. Results of the logit model revealed that; farming cost, family labor, knows micro finance and borrowers to informal creditors are the factors that significantly affect access to microfinance. Farming cost, family labor and knows micro finance negatively affect the decision of farmers by 0.00005, 0.1651 and 0.1494 respectively. Only knows microfinance has the positive effect on access with marginal effect equal to 0.22. The study recommends that micro finance institutions should decrease there interest rates, adjust their repayment period and improve their marketing to small coconut farmers.