The study assessed rice farmers’ access to credit and constraints in rice production in the
Tolon District of Ghana. A total of 140 rice farmers were sampled for the study using
multi-stage sampling technique. The probit model was used to estimate the factors that
affected rice farmers’ access to credit. The Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to
assess the constraints in rice production. The results of the study revealed that majority of the
rice farmers accessed credit from family and friends and invested the credit into
non-agricultural activities. The probit result revealed that age, marital status, member of
farmer based organization, extension visit, record keeping and farm income were the
significant variables that influenced rice farmers’ access to credit. The results also revealed
that high cost of inputs and pest were the most pressing institutional and technical constraints
in rice production, respectively. The study recommends that credit should be converted to
physical inputs and other services and delivered to farmers to help minimize credit diversion
from the farm sector. Rice farmers should be encouraged to form farmer groups and keep
records of farming activities considering the fact that it positively influenced farmers’ access
to credit. Subsidies should be provided on farm inputs. Effective ways of eliminating pest on
rice fields should be developed since it was a major challenge facing the rice farmers in their
production.