ABSTRACT
Most economists would accept that, given a free capital market, what farmers are actually paying for interest on debt equates with their private time preference rates. This in turn premises that the market price for credit at the study sites is reflecting an open system of supply and demand, and that the farmers have freedom of choice both in their decisions to borrow and in their credit supplier. These issues are assessed, and the economic theory on which they are based is tested, as a result of the data analysis of the interest and discount rate surveys presented in this chapter.
