"...CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions can be drawn from this analysis: First, MADB is by far the most important source of loans for agriculture, and plays a crucial role in ensuring that most farmers have access to credit at affordable rates. Terms of repayment for MADB loans appear somewhat more flexible than is generally understood, particularly for monsoon loans, which have repayment periods that are two months longer on average than those for loans taken in dry season. (Repayment schedules for dry season loans are presumably more tightly restricted due to the Bank?s need to disperse the main tranche of monsoon loans from July onwards). Perhaps because a degree of flexibility exists, the share of farmers reporting the need to sell crops earlier than they preferred in order to meet MADB loan repayments was lower than expected. Second, informal lenders (predominantly relatives/ friends and moneylenders) are by far the most common sources of informal credit for agriculture, but are also among the most expensive. The least creditworthy agricultural households (those with the smallest landholdings and lowest per capita expenditures) are most heavily dependent on these sources, and thus face a double burden of limited resources and expensive debt. Loans from these two sources also dominate credit utilized for aquaculture. However, despite average operating costs much higher than those in agriculture, only 41% of households practicing aquaculture had accessed a loan for this purpose within the past 12 months, suggesting that the cost of informal credit may act as a disincentive to investment in the activity, likely resulting in sub-optimal productivity. Third, the prevalence of output-tied loans in agriculture is insignificant, with no loans of this type being provided by traders or input suppliers. In the case of aquaculture, such loans are available from fish traders, but only to large farms. Rather than being exploitative, as such arrangements are often perceived to be, these loans are advantageous to borrowers, because average loan sizes and loan durations are greater than for those from other informal sources, and average rates of interest are lower. Fourth, access to loans from microfinance institutions and cooperatives improved sharply between 2011 and 2016. The greater availability credit from these providers appears to be linked to a 12-percentage point reduction in the average rate of interest paid on loans taken from sources other than banks over this period. Although this is a very positive development, loans from these sources represent only a small share of that invested agriculture and aquaculture, suggesting potential to tailor them more effectively to meet the needs of farm households."