Effects of climate adaptation on technical efficiency of maize production in Northern Ghana

William Adzawla,Hamdiyah Alhassan

doi:10.1186/s40100-021-00183-7

Abstract

Climate adaptation is an essential strategy for responding to climate change at local levels and required for sustainable food production to meet the growing food demand. In this light, this study analyzed the effects of climate adaptation strategies on technical efficiency of maize farmers in Northern Ghana. This involved a total of 619 maize farmers that were selected through a multistage sampling procedure. A Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier was fitted to the data. From the result, the major climate adaptation strategies adopted by the farmers include row planting, changing planting date, mixed farming, refilling, and intercropping. The frontier result shows that while climate adaptation significantly leads to higher maize outputs, only crop rotation and row planting significantly improve technical efficiency of maize farmers. Other factors that significantly influence maize output are farm size, labor, seed, and chemicals. The study concludes that climate adaptation, particularly, crop rotation and row planting, remains essential adaptation strategies for sustainable food production in the region. However, further understanding of mechanisms through which majority of the climate adaptation strategies significantly reduce technical efficiency is required.

Highlights

Agriculture has historically played an essential role in improving the livelihood of poor people especially in the developed countries and remains an important sector in the developing countries (Dorward et al, 2004)
Where farmers have to walk to their farms, longer distance can affect their efficiencies on the farm as they may get tired before reaching the farm
Within the background that there is the need to ensure that efficiency is not compromised by the adoption of climate adaptation strategies, this study analyzed the effect of climate adaptation on technical efficiency of maize production

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture has historically played an essential role in improving the livelihood of poor people especially in the developed countries and remains an important sector in the developing countries (Dorward et al, 2004). For Diao et al (2010), agriculture has had less impact on most African economies compared to many Asian economies, leading to the debate on the role of agriculture in African development. Whichever direction the debate is directed, the widespread poverty in Africa can be linked to the performance of the agricultural sector. In Ghana the agricultural sector is essential for the socioeconomic development of the country through employment generation and contribution to the Adzawla and Alhassan Agricultural and Food Economics (2021) 9:14 country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The global drive to attaining zero hunger can be interrupted by climate change (Wheeler and Braun, 2013)

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Conclusion