While many studies that are focused on mobile money concern the effects of mobile money on consumption and informal risk-sharing, little evidence is provided on how mobile money influences payments and microbusiness investment for low-income people. We estimate the effects of access to mobile money on individuals' payments and income-generating activities by using data from the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Based on propensity-score matching and propensity-score weighted regression, we find that participation in mobile money is not dependent on individuals' financial status. We also observe that mobile-money users are likely to send and receive larger volumes of payments and remittances. We further find that mobile-money users are more likely to save higher amounts, invest more in education, microbusinesses, land, and buildings, and also consume more relative to non-users.

The medium term development plan of Ghana proposed modernization of agriculture to lead the way in transforming the economy. Providing irrigation infrastructure and enhancing farmer access to farm machinery were major interventions proposed. In line with this, the government has been investing in irrigation infrastructure as well as importing farm machinery under various programmes in recent years. This study analyzed access and intensity of mechanization by rice farmers in southern Ghana. The Shai-Osudoku and Ketu North Districts were purposively selected and a total of 360 farmers were randomly sampled from 16 rice growing communities. In general, the results of the descriptive statistics revealed that about 74 % of farmers were still cultivating rice with considerably low level of mechanization. The double hurdle model was employed to estimate the determinants of access to mechanization and the intensity of mechanization. The empirical results of tier one of the double huddle model revealed that size of land, access to credit, availability of farm machinery, expenditure on labour, agrochemical expenditure, the square of age, and gender positively influenced access to mechanization. Seed expenditure, age and district locations negatively influenced access to mechanization. The empirical results of the tier two of the double hurdle model revealed that distance from farm to nearest mechanization centre, rice income, non-farm income and experience were significant variables that positively influenced intensity of mechanization. Land ownership and household size negatively influenced intensity of mechanization. These results have implications for capacity building and government support for rice farmers in southern Ghana.

<p>This study analysed the effect of farm mechanisation on productivity of rice farms in southern Ghana. The empirical results of the stochastic frontier model of primary data solicited from 360 rice farmers in southern Ghana revealed that land size cultivated, agrochemical expenditure, tillage intensity, threshing intensity, education and transportation intensity were significant factors that positively influenced partial factor productivity with respect to mechanisation. On the other hand, reaping intensity, over use of fertilizers, and age of farmers negatively influenced partial factor productivity with respect to mechanisation. These results have implications for capacity building and government support to increase productivity on rice farms.</p>

No abstract

No abstract