Examining the social, physical and institutional determinants of pineapple farmers’ choice of production systems in Central Ghana

Abstract

Various researchers have determined the different factors influencing farmers’ decisions to adopt certified organic production, without considering factors about the social and institutional environments of smallholder farmers in developing countries. In this paper, we examined the social, physical and institutional factors that affect farmers’ choice of production systems for pineapple in Ghana. A multinomial logit model was used to examine the factors influencing the pineapple farmers’ choice of a production system. Empirical findings indicate that apart from personal and attitudinal factors, the social, physical and institutional factors are also very important in individual farmer’s decisions to adopt certified organic production systems. Policy implications of these findings are that besides farmers’ personal and attitudinal characteristics, the social, physical and institutional features were also crucial in their decision to adopt certified organic production systems. The identified factors contribute to informing the government and other key players along the pineapple value chain on the elements to strive for when designing strategies and programmes to promote certified organic pineapple production. The study proposes that to encourage and sustain certified organic pineapple production systems, stakeholders in the pineapple sector should help farmers to consider the environmental sustainability in their production decision making and educate farmers on the potential cost and benefits of certifying their products organically. Effective policy and strategy design should, therefore, consider these factors to improve the adoption rate from conventional to certified organic production systems.