FARMER INNOVATIONS, IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PRODUCTIVITY HETEROGENEITY OF RICE PRODUCTION IN GHANA

Abstract

In recent times, rice production can be said to be receiving some attention in Ghana. This notwithstanding, there are still wide variations in rice yield across regions due to differences in production systems and technologies. This study analyses rice productivity heterogeneity among agro-ecological zones and draws policy implications for the adoption of farmer innovation systems (FISs) and improved agricultural technologies (IATs) to enhance yield in Ghana. The study used primary data obtained from nine-hundred and seven (907) rice farmers from Guinea Savannah Zone (GSZ), Forest Savannah Transit ion Zone (FSTZ) and Coastal Savannah Zone (CSZ). Principal component analysis was used to classify farmers into non-adopters, adopters of FISs, adopters of IATs, and adopters of both FISs and IATs. The study used the theory of production and the theory of utility maximisation as the theoretical foundations. The new-two step stochastic metafrontier model was used to estimate productivity performances of rice farmers and identify the determinants of such performances because of agro-ecological differences and its ability to provide exact and accurate metafrontier technical efficiency estimates. The generalised linear model (GLM) was used to analyse the drivers of technology gap ratio. In order to estimate the impacts of technology adoption typology on rice yield, this study used multinomial endogenous switching regression model. Farmers in CSZ had the highest rice yield. The adoption of IATs has the highest impact on rice yield followed by joint adoption of FISs and IATs. While fertilizer, farm size, labour, capital and pesticides each increases rice output, the opposite is true for rice seed. Farmers in CSZ are the most technically efficient. Technical inefficiencies of farmers are negatively influenced by age, sex, household size, education years, extension visits, contract farming, access to improved seeds, access to irrigation, high rainfall amount, less lodging of rice, and well-coordinated and synergised adoption of technologies. Albeit farmers in CSZ are doing well in terms of rice yield, they still recorded the highest potential of increasing rice yield since they had the lowest technology gap ratio (TGR). Factors which increase TGR are contract farming, access to irrigation facilities, good condition of road from district capital to farming communities, nearness of rice farm to the farmers’ houses, non-lodging of rice, high actual mean annual rainfall amount within the district, FISs and IATs. It is recommended that government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, development partners and individual private companies should promote the adoption of IATs as well as educate farmers on how to coordinate and synergise the adoption of the whole package. The designed policy for the promotion of this superior technology should be intensified and farmer targeted. GSZ should be highly considered due to high percentage of non-adopters of the superior technology package. Contract farming should be vigorously pursued. In the long term, government and development partners should provide good road infrastructure and irrigation facilities in rice production communities. Lastly, researchers in national agricultural research institutions (eg. Savannah Agricultural Research Institute and Crop Research Institute) and academic agricultural research centres (agricultural research centres in the various universities) should vigorously research into rice production FISs and improved upon and made available to farmers to adopt. All these efforts should incorporate the needs of farmers in the respective agro-ecological zones.