Profit Efficiency of Small Scale Yam Production in Northern Ghana (Published)
Contribution made by small scale yam producers in Northern Ghana cannot be over emphasis, however very little attention is given to their profit efficiency and its determinants. This research used the stochastic efficiency frontier model to identify the level of yam farmers profit efficiency. Multistage random sampling method was adopted to obtain 225 small scale yam farmers across northern Ghana. On average, the profit efficiency of yam farmers was 56.75% in the study area with a minimum and maximum efficiency of 20% and 100% respectively. This implies there is an opportunity to increase profit by 43.25%. The inefficiency model showed that sex, household size, educational level, extension access and land ownership have negative coefficients, meaning that as these variables increases the profit efficiency of the farmer increases. The variable sex inverse relation suggests that; male farmers are more efficient than their female counterparts which needs to close.
Keywords: Northern Ghana, Profit efficiency, Stochastic Profit frontier, Yam Production
Factors Influencing Participation in Rice Development Projects: The Case of Smallholder Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana (Published)
Participation in rice development project is an important platform for joint learning and technology transfer. The present study quantifies the factors influencing participation in rice development projects among smallholder rice farmers in Northern Ghana. A total of 400 rice farmers selected through multi-stage sampling technique were interviewed. The result shows a significant variation in the demographic and institutional characteristics among the farmers by participation in rice development projects. Participation in rice development projects in Northern Ghana is influenced by age of the household head, marital status, access to off-farm income, market price of rice, knowledge of rice varieties and access to credit and the interactive term education and farm size. The packaging of agricultural technologies by research institutions and agricultural development organizations should focus on making them more receptive to farmers through effective training and demonstrations in order to boost participation, adoption, production and farmers income.
Keywords: Northern Ghana, Participation, Probit, Rice Development Project, Smallholder