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Session ID 4806, Paper# 19336

Session ID 4727, Paper# 18735

This paper examines farmers’ preferences for an improved Bambara groundnut variety, the key attributes desired, factors influencing preference, and the number of attributes desired by smallholder farmers in Ghana. Using data collected from 113 randomly selected households growing Bambara in the Wenchi and Nkoranza municipalities in southern Ghana, we estimate the factors influencing preference decisions and the intensity of the desired attributes using probit and Poisson regression models respectively. Preference for an improved Bambara variety is influenced by experience in farming, availability of extension services, credit access, membership of farmer-based organisations, plant type, seed colour, household size and yielding capacity. The attributes desired the most by farmers are high yielding capacity, high protein content, branched plant type and seeds that are dark or brown in colour. Furthermore, key factors influencing the number of attributes desired in an improved Bambara variety include the farmer’s sex, education, years of experience in Bambara cultivation, household size, membership of farmer-based organisations and extension services. There is a need to consider these varietal attributes and the factors as integral to research and development efforts, as well as to the policy agenda, to enhance the adoption of improved Bambara varieties for increased productivity and incomes of smallholders in Ghana. more...

Paper# 18096

This paper investigates the components of farm-level total factor productivity (TFP) and examines the role of mix efficiency in integrated crop-livestock systems in Ghana. A FärePrimont productivity index is estimated and decomposed into various efficiency components. The result suggests that, mix inefficiency is consistently greater than technical and scale inefficiency. However, input-mix inefficiency was found to be higher than output mix inefficiency which suggests that crop-livestock farmers are relatively able to obtain gains in productivity from altering their output mixes more than altering input mixes. Future research and development efforts on mix efficiency in crop-livestock farming and agriculture in general need to take account of examining input-mix inefficiency. Strategies to improve productive efficiency in the Ghanaian agriculture should also emphasize improvements in mix efficiency such as policies that induce farmers to alter their input and output mixes. more...

This paper uses cross-sectional data collected from 375 smallholder yam farmers in Ghana in 2010 to examine whether the adoption of yam minisett technology had an effect on the technical efficiency of production of the yam farmers. We correct for endogeneity in adoption and employ stochastic frontier analysis to investigate the effect of adoption of the technology on the technical efficiency of production. Our analysis suggests average technical efficiencies of 85.4% and 89.2% in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions respectively. In addition, the effect of adoption of the technology on the technical efficiency of smallholder farmers was positive and significant in the Ashanti region, but negative in the Brong Ahafo region. Our results provide information to improve the uptake of production technologies and their effect on smallholder yam farmers in Ghana. more...

This paper uses cross sectional data which were collected from 200 smallholder rice producers in Ghana, to examine the factors influencing the adoption and extent of use of NERICA rice varieties in Ghana. About 57.93 per cent of the sampled rice producers allocated 35.77 per cent of their land to NERICA accounting for about 33.13 per cent of seeds planted. The Tobit regression model suggests fertilizer use, existence of other complementary projects in the area, proportion of active persons in household, access to alternative income sources, distance to seed source and education as key factors influencing the quantity of seeds planted as well as the proportion of land allocated to the NERICA varieties. With the exception of distance to seed source, all the other factors positively influenced the extents of adoption. The findings suggest the need to ensure availability of NERICA seeds within acceptable distances to farming communities. This could be achieved through identification of certified rice seed growers in strategic locations throughout the country and supported with necessary logistics to produce NERICA seeds at reasonable proximities to rice producing communities. This could also be enhanced through establishment of linkages with existing institutions and projects to compliment promotional efforts. more...

This paper uses cross sectional data which were collected from 200 smallholder rice producers in Ghana, to examine the factors influencing the adoption and extent of use of NERICA rice varieties in Ghana. About 57.93 per cent of the sampled rice producers allocated 35.77 per cent of their land to NERICA accounting for about 33.13 per cent of seeds planted. The Tobit regression model suggests fertilizer use, existence of other complementary projects in the area, proportion of active persons in household, access to alternative income sources, distance to seed source and education as key factors influencing the quantity of seeds planted as well as the proportion of land allocated to the NERICA varieties. With the exception of distance to seed source, all the other factors positively influenced the extents of adoption. The findings suggest the need to ensure availability of NERICA seeds within acceptable distances to farming communities. This could be achieved through identification of certified rice seed growers in strategic locations throughout the country and supported with necessary logistics to produce NERICA seeds at reasonable proximities to rice producing communities. This could also be enhanced through establishment of linkages with existing institutions and projects to compliment promotional efforts. more...

This paper uses cross-sectional data collected from 375 smallholder yam farmers in Ghana in 2010 to examine whether the adoption of yam minisett technology had an effect on the technical efficiency of production of the yam farmers. We correct for endogeneity in adoption and employ stochastic frontier analysis to investigate the effect of adoption of the technology on the technical efficiency of production. Our analysis suggests average technical efficiencies of 85.4% and 89.2% in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions respectively. In addition, the effect of adoption of the technology on the technical efficiency of smallholder farmers was positive and significant in the Ashanti region, but negative in the Brong Ahafo region. Our results provide information to improve the uptake of production technologies and their effect on smallholder yam farmers in Ghana. more...