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