In Kenya, small holder farmer information levels and access to agricultural value chain financing is less than optimal. This study sought to investigate the effect of small holder tea farmer characteristics on the effectiveness of value chain financing in Kiambu County. Purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of borrowers' characteristics on credit access in the tea industry value chain financing in Kiambu County. A cross-sectional study with systematic sampling approach of 384

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... er farmers who supplied tea to 6 KTDA factories was conducted. 234 (66%) males and 120 (34//%) females were interviewed. 6% respondents were below 30 years, 31% between 31-40 years, 38% between 41-50 years, 17% between 51-60 years and 8% for 60 and above years. (86%) of the respondents were married, 10% were single while 4% were divorced. Fourteen percent (14%) of the study participants had been planting tea for less than 5 years when the data was collected, 25% had been tea farmers for between 5-10 years while © Musuva, Lewa, Achoki & Luciani Licensed under Creative Common Page 212 61% of all respondents had planted tea for more than 10 years. The mean number of years the respondents had been planting tea was 12.5 years (SD 6.3 years) whilst the mean acreage per farmer was 2 acres (SD 0.66 acres). Age group 41-50 years (OR =6.6, 95% CI 2.25-19.29, p=0.001) and age group 51-60 years (OR =6.6, 95% CI 2.33-18.49, p<0.001) were 6.6 times more likely to receive loans compared to individuals below the age of 40 years and those above 60 years. Individuals who had no education at all had a 27% higher chance of their loan requests being declined compared to the other levels of education (OR =0.27, 95% CI 0.08-0.93, p=0.038). Individuals with land less than 1 acre had a marginal 23% chance of their loan requests being declined compared to those who had more than 1 acre (OR =0.23, 95% CI 0.051-0.997, p=0.050) and individuals in formal employment had a 13% higher chance of getting credit facilities compared to those who did tea farming (OR 0.13, 95% CI 0.026-0.631, p=0.012). The study concluded that farmer age, education level, acreage and primary source of income were associated with the success of credit application processes