Cocoa farmers' perspective on the quality of public and private agricultural extension delivery in Southern Ghana

Abstract

While the theme of extension service quality has been extensively explored, we set out distinctly to compare farmers' perceptions of quality of public and private extension services. We adopted a survey method and collected data from 385 farmers. The private extension service received superior ratings as compared to the public services. Using multivariate probit model, we found gender, farm size, education, and access to hired labour as factors that affect extension service quality. Key challenges are wide agent-to-farmer ratio and high cost of services. We encourage collaborative efforts between government and private extension organisations to elevate extension delivery to farmers.