ABSTRACT Continuous tillage of soils results in nutrient mining. It leaves the soils in very fragile conditions and therefore nutrient augmentation through the application of fertilizers has become imperative to maintain crop yields to feed the ever-growing population of Ghana. The use of organic fertilizers has its pros and cons. This study sought to determine the factors that influence the adoption of organic fertilizers, in vegetable production in Accra. Vegetable growing areas were purpo...
ABSTRACT The study looked at the economic potential of black pepper production in the Western Region of Ghana. The objectives of the study were: to determine whether there is comparative advantage or disadvantage of producing black pepper; to determine the competitiveness of black pepper production; to determine whether the prices paid by local and international markets give any incentives for black pepper production; and to identify constraints that militate against the production of black p...
ABSTRACT This study identified the types of soil ameliorant that exist in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. It also determined farmer's willingness to pay for composted urban waste as well as the amounts they were willing to pay for a 50kg bag of compost should it result in a 25% and 50% increments in output, respectively. The study further investigated the socio-economic factors that affect farmer's willingness to pay for compost. The results obtained further revealed that different types o...
ABSTRACT In Mali, the agricultural sector occupies about 80% of the population and contributes to around 33% of the country’s GDP. The rural population represents about 60% of the Malian population and 33 % of the population live under the poverty threshold. The agricultural sector which employs the largest population is dominated by smallholder farmers who have limited access to production resources such as agricultural inputs and agricultural information and marketing activities. Conseq...
ABSTRACT In response to the challenges of using traditional farming practices and in order to boost smallholder productivity on sustainable basis, many civil society organizations, NGOs and international donor agencies including USAID, under the auspices of its Agriculture Development and Value-Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) project, has initiated many intervention programmes geared towards the development and dissemination of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs). The study aimed at identifying t...
ABSTRACT Land degradation, unreliable rainfall, population growth and chronic poverty in subSaharan Africa challenge the sustainability of soil fertility, crop yields and general livelihoods (food security) for smallholder farmers. Several soil fertility management interventions have been introduced to farmers in groups over the years, but different levels of uptake, determinants and socio-economic effects have been reported in separate studies. However, the determining role of social networ...
ABSTRACT Low output of cocoa has resulted in Ghana losing out to Cote d‟Ivoire as the leading producer. The aim of this study was to explore farm households‟ adoption of inorganic fertilizer and technical efficiency, using cross-sectional data collected from 305 cocoa producing households in the Western Region of Ghana. The Heckman two-stage model was used for both the discrete decision to adopt fertilizer and intensity of fertilizer use while the stochastic frontier framework was used t...
ABSTRACT This study assesses consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for safer vegetables in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 350 vegetable consumers selected through a multi stage sampling procedure from ten districts of the capital city, Ouagadougou. Descriptive statistics was used in identifying the mean Willingness to Pay (MWTP). Ordered probit and Multinomial logit were used to estimate the factors influencing consumers’ WTP and consumers’...
ABSTRACT Stable and affordable food commodity prices are important for food security. Higher food prices reduce a family‟s expenditure on other life sustaining expenditures such as health and education. In 2007/8, the world experienced an unexpected rise in both food commodity prices and fuel (petroleum products) prices, which drew the attention of world leaders and researchers. The effect of this continues increases in gasoline prices on the price of maize have implications for Ghanaians ...
ABSTRACT This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the possible causes of production volatility that has characterized rice production in the Greater Accra and Volta Regions of Ghana. The output gap that exists between actual yield and achievable yield presents an opportunity for output growth. Using cross sectional data, this study presents an empirical analysis of production risk and technical efficiency of 356 irrigated rice farms from the two regions. This study adopts t...
ABSTRACT National data on post-harvest loss of mango fruits is estimated to be between 20% to 60%. This constitutes a huge financial loss to all actors. The major obstacles in dealing with this challenge are little knowledge of the nature of the marketing channels, absence of exact estimates, stages along the marketing channel where the losses occur as well as the socio-economic factors that lead to the losses. The study assessed the nature of the marketing channel, estimated losses at each ...
ABSTRACT This study presents an analysis of spatial price transmission and market integration of major maize markets in Ghana over the period 1995-2013. Monthly wholesale maize prices for the various markets were used for the analysis. The Augmented-Dickey Fuller test was used to test for the stationarity of individual price series and was confirmed by the KPSS test. All the price series data that were used tested for Unit Root. They were found to be non-stationary at levels but stationary a...
Abstract Maize, the most important cereal in Ghana, is consum ed in alm ost all parts of the country. To ensure food security in Ghana, adequate availability of m aize m ust be ensured. However, w hether or not farm ers should devote their resources to the production of more maize is a question to be addressed. Since food security has more to do with availability than with production or self-sufficiency in the product, it was necessary to investigate w hether it is better for farm ers to gro...
The need to increase and sustain the production of cowpea in Ghana has been recognised. It is a cheaper source of protein and thus has the potential to alleviate protein malnutrition. Specifically, the study determines the various storage and preservation technologies that are known n and/or used by cowpea farmers, the profitability of cowpea preservation by means of the newly introduced technology called the hydrothermal treatment technology, and also identifies the characteristics tha...
The study analyses the effect of the socio-economic determinants on diversification behaviour of cocoa producers herein referred to as ‘producers, ’ in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The Logit model was employed in the study, which identifies the reasons for diversification into other perennial and annual crops, animal production and off-farm activities. The constraints faced by producers in diversifying, as ranked by the producers, are also analysed. Three hundred and four producers ...