Credit agricole et efficacite de la production agricole en Cote d'Ivoire

Although there is an intense debate in Cate d'Ivoire about the opportunity of creating a bank to finance the agricultural sector, no scientific research has tackled the issue thoroughly to serve as a basis of policy choice. This paper attempts, to some extent, to circumvent this insufficiency. It shows that access to credit can increase peasants economic efficiency in rice production. Since peasants all have the same allocative efficiency the difference in economic efficiency is attributable to the credit-induced difference in technical efficiency. Thus, access to credit is an important stimulus to agricultural growth. After an historical review of financial institutions and their relation to agriculture in Cate d'Ivoire we recommend a change in the management of these institutions and the creation of a new agricultural bank.