The study sought to investigate the farm record keeping behaviour among small-scale poultry farmers in the Ga East Municipality. Data was collected by the use of the simple random sampling technique. All the poultry farmers interviewed kept at least production and financial records. The chi-square test of independence showed that farm record keeping was independent of age, educational level, experience in poultry farming, farmer status, number of birds owned by respondents and respondents' membership of a farmer association. The reason why most of the farmers did not keep all the farm records was because they assert that those records were not beneficial to them. An award for the best farm record keeper must be instituted by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in collaboration with other non-governmental agencies to help boost farmers' interest in keeping farm records.

This study was conducted to determine the efficiency of resource use in rice production with the Kpong Irrigation Project (KIP) as a case study. Seventy farmers were selected using the simple random sampling technique. The Cobb-Douglass production function was used to estimate the coefficients of the various variables analysed and MPP, MVP and allocative efficiency index were also used to estimate the efficiency of resource use in the study area. The regression results showed that the farmers were in the second stage of production, which is, decreasing returns to scale (using the elasticities). The results of the efficiency computation indicated that land (6.63), fertilizer (1.76) and seed (10.84) were being underutilized and labour (0.000036) and chemicals were being highly over utilized in the study area. The study recommends that KIP should embark on repair works on the roads, provide appropriate machinery services and desilting the drains.

The study sought to ascertain how the Farmer Business School (FBS) introduced in 2012 by the Ghana Cocoa Board as an extension approach makes the Ghanaian cocoa farmer more business and entrepreneurially minded. The research methods included using the descriptive survey and multi-stage sampling techniques to cover the six cocoa regions and 600 cocoa farmers. The 600 cocoa farmers selected were made up of 230 non-participants and 370 participants of the FBS. In terms of competency, the results showed that FBS participants had greater knowledge, a more positive attitude, and better skills than non-participants. In terms of market orientation, FBS participants were more competitor oriented, had less intelligence generation, were less market responsive, had less intelligence dissemination, had more customer emphasis, and had more interfunctional coordination than non-participants. The market orientation of cocoa farmers can be enhanced by provision of relevant practical experience for attitudinal change.

The study examined interest of farmers and insurance companies in farm insurance. The sample consisted of 110 respondents; 100 farmers and 10 insurance companies. The Probit model was used to analyse the effect of factors affecting the willingness of cocoa farmers to accept farm insurance. All of the respondents had ever heard of one or more types of insurance whiles 32% had knowledge of farm insurance. About 87% indicated their interest in farm insurance. The t-statistic results showed that other occupation of farmer (-0.200, p=0.097), farm size (1.96, p = 0.050) and owner of land for farming (-0.41, p = 0.011) significantly affected willingness to accept farm insurance policies. For a realistic farm insurance policy, it is recommended that land availability for farmers must be largely considered.

Limited studies exist on the commitment of members to cooperative societies. Therefore, the study sought to measure perceptions of membership and the drivers of membership commitment of cocoa farmers' cooperative societies in the Atwima Mponua District of Ashanti Region, Ghana. Data was collected from a sample of 400 cocoa farmers through a multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (binary logit regression) were used in analyzing the data. Results show that cocoa farmers agree that they benefit from the cooperative and they appreciate the management, marketing and business, internal dynamics and public interest of their cooperatives. The study also discovered that farm age, access to extension service, farming experience, farmer status, cooperative benefits and internal dynamics are critical to obtaining commitment in cooperative societies. The study shows the need for the Ghana Cocoa Board to improve farmers’ access to extension services so as to improve their commitment in cooperative societies. Cooperative organizations are encouraged to consider the perceptions of the cocoa farmers and their socio-economic characteristics in order to elicit the desired commitment.