Role Of Nigeria Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (NARDB) In The Financing Of Agricultural Co-Operatives Society

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Banks are financial house with the authority to guide groups and individual who cloud is having monetary transaction to do. The provision of sound financial regulation that makes for the economic well being, is very essential and assistance and the provision of the financial house in building up a safe monetary training reserve is very important. The well directed influence of the vital bank on a larger society is always something to admire every time. The need to have an economic group that is well tasted and approved of with the education of the members of the society in forming a financial viable social ground belong in the part to the intellectual service rendered by the banks.
In agricultural co-operative society, where. Where individual who hold the financial stock could pull there resources together when union of this stock holders could amount to a great gain to the advancement of their individual well being and collective inspiration, the expertise of banks posted to assist this group materially came with a greaten relief. The government has a whole lot of work load to carry out financially so has not much time to supervise or monitor the economic activity. She has assigned a duty to her agencies. These agencies are survey as the god in the wheel of the progress of such co-operatives society and at the same time provide the necessary material for the improvement and standard procedure. Special agro-allied bank has been set under the auspice of the of the apex bank to grant material aid to agro-stock holders. These banks are viz-commercial bank. Nigeria agriculture and cooperative bank limited and the Nigeria agricultural and co-operative and rural development bank. This financial institution has the authority to deal on the multiple problem traumatizing agriculture and formation of agro-union in Nigeria.
The bound of agriculture is becoming so highly mobilized so that it will take a lot of money to produce food and cash crop in much profitable abundance. It is with his mind that the government has arranged with her many agencies to bring some relief to aspiring agro-stock holders.
Bank in any national has a keynote to play in unfolding the financial success of the economy.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The development bank is referred to as an organization owned and established by the government, which engage in small medium, long time lending otherwise known as trending to their beneficiaries. Ti dose not only provide for only investment but also for guarantee for viable project in different sector of the economy.
Since this bank is diversified in the area of their operation for instance the Nigeria agricultural cooperative and rural development bank (NACRDB), finances agriculture, its functions include;
They provide loan to individual farmers, co-operative organization, Limited Liability Company, state and the federal government, they finance direct investment in the equity capital of major agricultural and agro-allied industry ventures. Also they provide guarantee for agricultural and agro allied industry to enable them raise finances either local or aboard.
Assisting in improving the income and welfare of farmers, prompting rural development
The history activity and operation of the Nigeria agricultural cooperative and rural development bank (NACRDB) formally (NAB) in the past nineteen years has been that of the plethora outstanding role and enviable records. They are as follows;
(NACRDB) has through the successful operation of the small holder loan initiated in 1981 being the source of financial strength to the peasant farmers, thus enhancing there contribution to the major agricultural source.
The bank ahs the highest number of agricultural credit beneficiaries in the Nigeria economy with the small scale farmers over 300,000.the bank is the first to involve other banks in allocating to farmers for the purpose of mobilizing fund to promote the production of the agro-chemical. The bank championed the introduction of the credit scheme that cut across all aspect of Nigeria industry.
As a development financial institution, the Nigeria agricultural cooperative and the rural development bank (NACRDB) was established to deliver credit to agriculture sector of the Nigeria economy having the following specific contribution as the central focus.
1. Contributing to the overall growth and development of the economy
2. They help in assisting in the improvement of the income and quality of life in the general rural population
3. They finally help in the promotion of agriculture production and rural development

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Agricultural development has been beset by lack of fund. Source of fund were noted by popular study to be scarce. Where source of credit are available, farmers do not have security for loan. (NACRDB) introduces its small holders scheme (SHS) to avert the issue of security to the rural farmers.
Illiteracy has also proved to be a cancan worm in the smooth organization of the agricultural development in Nigeria. As a result of this, most farmers that are not opportune to attain basic education suffers from and agricultural development face off and this lead to gracefully below standardize of agro – business. But NACRDB staff training as it is its primary function to meet the training and development need of the bank staff and those of other institution and interested individuals especially in the area of agriculture and agric financial has help to cope this situation. Poor repayment also is one of the set back to (NACRDB)
. The extent of repayment is considered by the performance of credit organization. Those who made all repayment of loan attribute it to lateness of loan and lose incurred form loan (NACRDB) give help to farmers who have such problem. Majority of farmers has benefited form all holders loan scheme (SHLS). The problem is on the critical evaluation of the impact of the scheme in rural farmers viz-vas rural development. Unfortunately, rural development structure in Nigeria is a limiting factor to the full realization of the (NACRDB) credit scheme.
In specific term, poor infrastructure facility such as rose, hospital, communication system, transportation and marketing of agricultural product are glossy below standard. Also this research will address the inherent problem of credit use are regard to socio-economic characteristics like education qualification, size of family and farm size, and income are critically factors in credit acquisition and uses. The research will examine the role of this factor in enhancing and improving the living standard of the farmers

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1. The general objective of the study is to determine the contribution of (NACRDB) towards financing of agriculture
2. Study the number of rural farmers that have benefited form (NACRDB) loan scheme
3. Evaluate the social economic characteristic of the beneficiaries
4. Study the extent of commitment of (NACRDB) in Enugu not local government area
5. Study the contribution of (NACRDB) in rural development and enugu north local government area
6. Identify problems and limitation of (NACRDB)

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will be of an immeasurable benefit both to the lending institution (development banks) on one hand and the farmers (borrowers) on the other hand. This is because the lending institution will be able to know and ascertain the credit need of the farmers, the period of loan recovery and the rate of default on loan. Farmers on the other hand will be in position to estimate the amount of credit available for each period. Its adequacy or otherwise or with a view for looking for other source of fund. It will also guide them on how to tackle the various agricultural credit-financing problems facing them. To the economy at large, the research work will be good to help since agricultural production has in the recent past being a national problem that need urgent attention. It will help the federal and the state government in formulation future agricultural credit policy for the country
Last but not the least, the work will be a useful Addison to the existing research work carried out in the area of agricultural credit financing in Nigeria and therefore will serve as a reference to future researcher.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION
1. Have banks been able to improve the efficiency of agricultural production in large scale?
2. Have banks input been able to improve the manpower resource?
3. Has it been able to increase the income of farmers?
4. Has it been able to make easier access to credit facilities to the farmers

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This study covers the operation of (NACRDB) smallholder role of development bank Enugu area. As a student research time and money were my greatest problem, therefore there is no doubt that this two factors will have some limiting impact on my ability to run around for data collection. Apart from this two factor, (NACRDB) like every other business organization with its requirement of secrecy in handling its official document could not provide enough data as required by the researcher. For instance, the staff of (NACRDB) could not give any information on the level of default cases of their loan. It was also difficult to obtain information from the individual borrowers loan amount each year. This could have help to work the researcher determine how it deviated from the loan approved in a particular year. Faced with this situation, the researcher has to make use of the little information provided by the (NACRDB). Also because of the time factor and inadequate data, only one out of (NACRDB) numerical scheme will be treated in this work. That is the (NACRDB) small-scale holder direct lending scheme.
The researcher work involve but qualitative and quantitative analysis of data and other information which were obtain from the primary and secondary source in the form of passed data and faced interview, such data include the (NACRDB) role in financing agriculture for the period of 1991 to 2000. Data from stationeries, textbook, magazines, newspapers, presented in seminar etc.