Abstract
<p>Although cocoa productivity has recently been increasing in Ghana, it is still low compared with that of other countries such as Cote d’Ivoire and Malaysia. This situation has been attributed to the low adoption of cocoa production technologies. The study was aimed at analysing the yield gap as well as some cocoa yield factors. Cross-sectional socio-economic survey was conducted in six (6) cocoa growing districts: Nkawie, Goaso, Enchi, Oda, Twifo Praso/Assin Fosu and Hohoe. A structured questionnaire was employed in the collection of data from 300 respondents who were randomly chosen with multi-stage cluster sampling technique. The yield gaps and their proportion to yield potentials were estimated using data from the survey and on-station trials. The findings indicated an experimental yield gap of 1 553.4 kg ha<sup>-1</sup>, accounting for 82.1% of the experimental yield potential whereas farmer-based yield gap was 1 537.2 kg ha<sup>-1</sup>, also accounting for 82.0% of the farmer (survey) yield potential. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis indicated that frequency of spraying fungicides against black pod disease, spraying insecticides against capsids, weeding of cocoa farms, cocoa variety planted by farmer, area of cocoa farm and total cocoa production variables had a significant impact on cocoa yield. It is recommended that the Government should encourage cocoa farmers, through pragmatic measures, to adopt improved technologies for enhancing productivity instead of focusing on excessive land expansion which eventually leads to low productivity.</p>
Highlights
Increasing agricultural productivity or yield is critical to economic growth and development
The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis indicated that frequency of spraying fungicides against black pod disease, spraying insecticides against capsids, weeding of cocoa farms, cocoa variety planted by farmer, area of cocoa farm and total cocoa production variables had a significant impact on cocoa yield
The analysis of variance of the cocoa yield response of fertilizer and cocoa variety planted by the farmers indicated a statistically significant interaction between fertilizer and hybrid cocoa variety (F0.05 (3, 218) = 2.91; P < 0.05) with mean of 405.2 ± 348.7 kg ha-1 having a range between 78.1 kg ha-1 and 1875.1 kg ha-1 whilst the main effects were not significant
Summary
Increasing agricultural productivity or yield is critical to economic growth and development. This can be achieved by using improved agricultural technologies and management systems. Yield gap is calculated by subtracting achieved average yield from the yield potential (Lobell, Cassman, & Field, 2009). Yield potential of a crop is the yield obtained when it is grown in a suitable environment of adequate moisture and nutrients, without pest and disease problems (Gommes, 2006; Lobell et al, 2009). Understanding yield gap is very crucial for it can assist in crop yield predictions since yield potential shows the probable future productivity to be achieved. The alternative methods are surveys on past maximum estimated on-station yields and competitive yields obtained by farmers
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