ADOPTION OF DRY SEASON VEGETABLE FARMING AND ITS EFFECTS ON INCOME AT GOLINGA AND BOTANGA IRRIGATION SITES,NORTHERN GHANA

Abstract

The study examined the factors influencing the adoption of dry season vegetable farming and its effect on income in the Golinga and Bontanga irrigation sites in the Northern Region of Ghana. It involved 240 farmers selected through multi stage sampling procedure and the data analyzed using a switching regression and treatment effect models that corrected for sample selection bias. Farmers who had higher probability of going into dry season vegetable production were the younger farmers, farmers who had been cultivating vegetables for several years, farmers who had been in farmer groups for several years, farmers who had more contacts with extension officers and farmers who had accessed credit. While more labour, seed, fertilizer and insecticides were needed to increase income under irrigation farming, more labour and fertilizer as well as greater farm size were required to raise rain fed crop value. From the treatment effect model, dry season farming was found to have a positive effect on crop value. Other significant variables were farm size, seed, labour and insecticides. The study recommends that credit facilities should be made more available and accessible to the vegetable farmers to enhance their participation in irrigation farming, group formation should be promoted while extension service delivery should be enhanced.