Can Cooperation Memberships Ease Farmers' Credit Constraints? - Evidence from Sichuan Province

摘要

In developing countries, credit constraints are often perceived as one of the most important market frictions hampering agricultural productivity growth in rural areas. In this context, it is important to study the causes of farmers' credit constraints and the corresponding solutions. This paper examines the effects of farmer cooperatives in rural areas on income and poverty by applying Probit method on survey data from 8 counties in the main grain areas in Sichuan province, it finds that farmer cooperatives can significantly ease farmers' credit constraints. It also found that the use of Internet has significantly reduced the credit constraints of farmers. Therefore it is necessary to promote the healthy development of farmers' cooperatives.