Performance of smallholder soybean farmers in Ghana; evidence from Upper West Region of Ghana

Francis Akabo Asodina,Amos Mensah,Faizal Adams,Bright Owusu Asante,Fred Nimoh

doi:10.1016/j.jafr.2021.100120

Francis Akabo Asodina, Amos Mensah + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2021.100120

Copy DOI

Abstract

The economic importance of soybean towards poverty alleviation and food security is gaining wider popularity and common acceptance among smallholder farmers in sub-Sahara Africa, especially in Ghana. Commercial soybean cultivation is relatively new in Ghana; hence it has recently benefited from several productivities enhancing innovation/technologies. However, despite these efforts, productivity has remained low. This paper investigates factors affecting production efficiency among commercial soybean farmers, across the three commercial districts of the Upper West region of Ghana. A cross-sectional data collected from 271 soybean farmers were used to investigate technical efficiency of soybean production. The overall mean technical efficiency estimate is 59% with a scale elasticity of 0.89-indicating a huge scope for efficiency improvement. The result shows that, farmers experience in soybean production heavily influenced technical efficiency of output. With the existing technology and production resources, soybean farmers can improve their current levels of soybean production by 41% through the adoption of best production practices.

Highlights

Like many developing economies, agriculture has a significant role in the socio-economic development of sub-Sahara Africa
Productivity remains below potential levels (FAO 2016) due to inherent inefficiencies in production among smallholder farmers who constitute about 80.2% of the agricultural system in sub-Sahara Africa (Najjuma, 2016; Dessie et al, 2020)
The paper examines the technical efficiency of soybean production among smallholder farmers in the Upper West region of Ghana

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture has a significant role in the socio-economic development of sub-Sahara Africa. The slow progress towards food security has partly been linked to low agricultural output resulting from the low adoption of production technologies among smallholder farmers (Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 2016; World Bank 2016; Dessie et al, 2020). Efforts to improve agriculture production across the sub-region has focused on introduction of modern crop and livestock technologies in the past years (Asante et al 2013). Productivity remains below potential levels (FAO 2016) due to inherent inefficiencies in production among smallholder farmers who constitute about 80.2% of the agricultural system in sub-Sahara Africa (Najjuma, 2016; Dessie et al, 2020).

Methods

Results

Conclusion