Abstract
Crop yield enhancing technologies such as inorganic fertilizers present opportunities for improving smallholder farmers’ crop yields, food security and incomes. This study examines maize productivity response to Ghana’s fertilizer subsidy policy focusing on yield differences between participants and non-participants in the Tempane District in Ghana among smallholder farmers. An Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model is employed to simultaneously examine the determinants of participation and its impact on maize productivity. The results show that education, nativity and media access are factors influencing the probability of fertilizer subsidy participation. The study reveals that participation in subsidized fertilizer policy is positively and significantly associated with maize productivity. Other factors such as fertilizer use rate, improved seeds and age enhance maize yield whilst non-farm work engagement negatively influences maize yield. These findings suggest that the impact of subsidized fertilizer on maize productivity can be enhanced with proper targeting and farmer education through field demonstrations. Key words: Subsidized fertilizer, maize yield, endogenous switching regression, Northern Ghana.
Highlights
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the majority of people in developing countries where crop production methods are dominated by traditional practices
The positive coefficient of Rho_1 signals a negative selection bias, which implies that farmers with maize yields lower than average without the fertilizer subsidy policy participated in the fertilizer subsidy programme
The negative and significant coefficient of Rho_0 shows a positive selection bias, meaning that farmers with maize yields more than average without the policy, did not adopt subsidized fertilizer (Abdulai and Huffman, 2014; Lokshin and Sajaia, 2004). These results suggest that in the Tempane District, maize farmers who perceive themselves as less productive are more likely to participate in the subsidized fertilizer programme whilst those who consider themselves more productive were more likely not to participate in the programme and this has an implication for programme targeting which is very important for effective input subsidy policy roll outs (Mather and Jayne, 2018)
Summary
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the majority of people in developing countries where crop production methods are dominated by traditional practices. Farmers in Sub-Saharan countries have traditionally cleared virgin lands, grown crops for a few seasons and moved on to clear more land. This practice left the abandoned land to fallow, allowing it to regain its fertility over time. Constant population growth has compelled farmers to continually plant crops on the same land giving no time for the soils to replenish the lost nutrients (Mokwunye and Bationo, 2011). The resulting effect has been soil nutrient depletion which has led to declining per capita food production (Mwangi, 1996), increased food insecurity and high poverty rates, especially in African countries. For smallholder farmers to feed themselves and to increase their incomes, the JEL Classification: Q12, Q15, Q18
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