Agriculture

Better access to social activities and education would improve women’s adaptation to salinity intrusion

Submitted by Petra Hansson on

Research questions: How does gender matter in intra-household adaptation choices in response to salinity intrusion and which factors affect the choices?

Agriculture, Climate Change, Policy Design

Is mango farming sustainable? An integrated analysis of remote sensing techniques and smallholder farmers’ perception in mango farming communities in Ghana

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on
EfD Authors:

In sub-Sahara Africa, sustainable agricultural sector has been trumpeted as the surest way for livelihood transformation through poverty reduction and ensuring food and nutritional security. Using mango farming as a case study, the paper determines how sustainable agriculture can be achieved by examining the environmental, social and economic impacts of mango farms in a rural setting. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to collect primary data from 400 respondents from the Shai Osu-Doku and Yilo-Krobo Districts of the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions respectively of Ghana.

Agriculture

Supply-Side Interventions in Cocoa Production in Ghana: A Regional Decomposition of Technical Efficiency and Technological Gaps

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on
EfD Authors:

Although Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) promotes technical change in cocoa farming with innovative technologies and input support, crop productivity is better advanced by improving on the efficiency of input use by farmers. This study thereby investigates the technical efficiency of cocoa farmers in Ghana. The study uses cross sectional field data covering Western North, Ashanti, Eastern, Volta and Brong-Ahafo regions of Ghana on a sample of 899 cocoa farmers and adopts Meta frontier stochastic frontier analysis to derive production efficiencies for each region.

Agriculture

Valuing Pollination as an Ecosystem Services: The Case of Hand Pollination for Cocoa Production in Ghana

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on

The promotion of cocoa farm productivity has necessitated the intensification of input use with ensuing loss of natural pollinators. Ghana Cocoa Board’s (COCOBOD) remedy to declining pollinator population is addressed in the rolling out of hand pollination in the 2016/17 crop year. Applying contingent valuation on field data covering 608 farmers in five cocoa growing regions, we estimate the value of pollinator services to the cocoa industry in Ghana and farmers willingness to pay for the service.

Agriculture

Does combining traditional and information and communications technology–based extension methods improve agricultural outcomes? Evidence from field experiments in Mali

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on
EfD Authors:

AbstractAdequate flow of appropriate information to farmers is vital for accelerating the uptake of modern agricultural technologies and improving access to markets, all of which are important for the transformation of African economies. Yet there is limited evidence regarding how information should be disseminated to farmers to achieve the needed impact. Should ICT‐based approaches be used together with traditional methods, or should they be used alone?

Agriculture

Heterogeneous market participation channels and household welfare

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on
EfD Authors:

This paper uses panel data and qualitative interviews from southwestern Ghana to analyse farmers’ heterogeneous oil palm marketing decisions and the effect on household welfare. We show that despite the supposed benefits that smallholders could derive from participation in global agribusiness value chains via formal contracts, such arrangements are rare although two of Ghana’s ‘big four’ industrial oil palm companies are located in the study area. In the absence of formal contracts, farmers self-select into four main oil palm marketing channels (OPMCs).

Agriculture

Land use and land cover change detection and prediction based on CA-Markov chain in the savannah ecological zone of Ghana

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on
EfD Authors:

Environmental problems have accompanied the accelerated land use and land cover change (LULCC), yet few local level studies make an attempt to assess the dynamics of LULCC. This work employed GIS and remote sensing to quantify the past and predict future dynamics of LULCC based on the synergy Cellular Automata (CA) - Markov Chain Model (MCM).

Agriculture

Achieving food security in Ghana: Does governance matter?

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on
EfD Authors:

AbstractThis study complements the extant literature by assessing the role of governance dynamics in food security in Ghana for the period 1980–2019. The empirical evidence is based on the fully modified ordinary least squares technique and governance is categorized into political (entailing political stability and voice and accountability), economical (consisting of regulatory quality and government effectiveness), and institutional (entailing corruption‐control and the rule of law) governance dynamics. The study finds that the engaged governance dynamics improve food security in Ghana.

Agriculture

Valuing Pollination as an Ecosystem Services: The Case of Hand Pollination for Cocoa Production in Ghana

Submitted by Vicentia Quartey on

The promotion of cocoa farm productivity has necessitated the intensification of input use with ensuing loss of natural pollinators. Ghana Cocoa Board’s (COCOBOD) remedy to declining pollinator population is addressed in the rolling out of hand pollination in the 2016/17 crop year. Applying contingent valuation on field data covering 608 farmers in five cocoa growing regions, we estimate the value of pollinator services to the cocoa industry in Ghana and farmers willingness to pay for the service.

Agriculture