An understanding of the nexus of organic fertilizer use decisions that smallholder farmers take is essential to designing relevant policy to support adoption in sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, we applied exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on observed farmer decisions to identify a set of common management approaches that farmers in the northeastern part of Ghana adopt in using organic fertilizer. After identification, seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) analysis was applied to relate each approach to farmer characteristics that influence uptake decisions. The EFA identified four approaches, labeled as Augmentary Compost Use Approach, Urban Human Waste Organic Fertilizer Approach, Integrated Livestock Manure Approach and Mineral Fertilizer Cost Constraint Organic Approach. Each of the first three approaches involves a set of strategic farmer decisions which could be supported to increase organic fertilizer use. The SUR analysis showed that the uptake of each approach is affected by different subsets of farmer characteristics. However, participation in organic fertilizer management training positively influences the adoption of all four approaches. Thus, we recommend free training of smallholder farmers as a core element of any policy package to support organic fertilizer adoption.

This paper examined organic fertilizer adoption and its effects on two household food security indicators and gender-based farm labor use among smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. An endogenous switching regression analysis shows that observed and unobserved farmer background factors determine farmers’ decision to adopt organic fertilizer as well as the outcomes from adoption. On average, adoption is associated with an 11% increase in per capita food consumption and a 55% reduction in household food gap duration. Adoption is also related to an increased labor use by 5.9 (90%) of female worker days and 1.3 (9%) of male worker days per acre, placing nearly all (82%) of the increased labor burden on female farmhands. We recommend mitigation of factors that hinder farmers from adopting the input and provision of female-user-friendly labor-saving devices for organic fertilizer use tasks.

The use of organic fertiliser to improve soil health is crucial to halting the downward trend of crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa. If this goal is to be achieved, however, farmers require support to adopt organic fertiliser practices that match their attitudes and decision-making capacity. This study evaluated farmers' attitudes to a set of prevailing organic fertiliser practices and their associated behavioural costs (difficulty). The explanatory Rasch model was applied to a set of primary data from 250 farming households in north-east Ghana. The results showed that the average attitude of farmers was much less than the difficulty estimate of an average organic fertiliser practice, although the practices generally showed a moderate difficulty. On average, farmers' attitudes matched just three of sixteen practices on the scale, with most (70 %) of the farmers showing very weak attitudes towards the input. Latent regression results revealed that the weak attitude levels were strongly related to key factors in the farmers' background, including education, resource endowment and access to extension services. Participation in determining policies on organic fertiliser use enhances farmers' knowledge and skills concerning use of the input. Hence, access to such policies can replace education for the less-educated majority of farmers. Thus, training programmes are proposed that develop the average farmer's capacity to adopt these practices in this area, especially the less difficult ones. Supporting farmers with the acquisition of animal-drawn vehicles can also facilitate uptake of the more difficult organic fertiliser practices and increase use of the input.

Despite* numerous* government* interventions,* increasing* agricultural* productivity* to* ensure* food* security* still* remains* a* challenge* facing* Ghana's* agriculture,* which* is* largely* conventional,* but* has* a* growing* organic* production* and* niche* market.* Since* 2001,* the* Integrated* Tamale* Fruit* Company*has*been*assisting*Northern*Ghana's*hitherto*subsistence*farmers*to* cultivate* organic* mango* through* an* outTgrower* scheme* aimed* at* boosting* the* productivity* and* market* access,* and* reducing* the* production* cost* of* farms* in* the* scheme.* Anecdotally,* the* livelihood* of* organic* mango* farmers* does* not* seem* to* have* improved,* despite* significant* increases* in* the* performance* of* participating* farms.* This* study* provides* empirical* evidence* on* the* actual* economic* performance* of* organic* mango* farmers* in* Northern* Ghana* and* establishes*the*implications*of*this*for*livelihood*and*empowerment*in*organic* mango* farm* household* by* estimating* inputTuse* efficiency.* By* fitting* a* tranlog* average* response* production* function* to* data* from* 204* organic* mango* farms,* we* obtained* inputTuse* efficiency* ratios* of* 1.83* and* 1.91* for* weeding* expenditure*incurred*by*group*and*family*outTgrowers*respectively,*and*ratios* of* 0.24* and* 0.11* for* organic* pesticides.* The* results* suggest* that* to* improve* their* livelihood,* farmers* need* to* increase* their* investment* in* weeding* and* reduce*that*of*pesticides*use.*