Abstract: Based on the 1 957 rural families' survey data from poverty-stricken areas of four northwest provinces including Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu and Shaanxi in 2019 and 2020, using the method of propensity score matching（PSM） and “A-F” multi-dimensional poverty index, an empirical analysis of the relationship of farmers'credit, development potential and multidimensional poverty was made. The results showed that farmers' credit could effectively restrain farmers' multi-dimensional poverty, and its effect was more obvious for high-potential farmers than ordinary farmers. Credit had different effects on different types of poverty. It could obviously improve income poverty and living condition poverty, and alleviate health poverty to a certain extent, but it had no significant effect on education poverty, asset poverty and opportunity poverty. To strengthen and consolidate the effect of credit poverty alleviation, it must pay attention to the cultivation of the development ability of poor farmers and poor areas, enhance the management ability and development potential of farmers, and consolidate the effect of credit poverty alleviation.

Key words: farmers' credit, development potential, relative poverty elimination, multi-dimensional poverty, post-poverty era, four northwestern provinces