Access and Intensity of Mechanization: Empirical Evidence of Rice Farmers in Southern Ghana

Abstract

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.

Farm Technology Adoption by Smallholder Farmers in Ghana

“…Male farmers were more likely to adopt farm mechanisation and improved varieties relative to female farmers. The result agrees with Kuwornu et al (2017) who found that being a male farmer increased access to farm mechanisation in southern Ghana.…”

Farm household access to agricultural services in northern Ghana

“…A positive influence of farming experience on access to mechanization is not surprising because experience increases farmers’ understanding of the prevailing farming system making them more likely to appreciate the compatibility of mechanization with existing practices according to Rogers diffusion of innovation theory ( Rogers, 2003 ). Also, experience farmers have better understanding of the cost implications of mechanization ( Kuwornu et al., 2017 ; Benin, 2015 ; Julius, 2014 ). The risks and uncertainties involved in adopting modern agricultural technologies and practices are minimized for experience farmers.…”

“…These factors include socio-economic, demographic, geographical and institutional factors. Some of the influential factors include respondent's sex ( Dontsop-Nguezet et al., 2016 ; Kuwornu et al., 2017 ), education ( Wossen et al., 2017 ; Gebrehiwot, 2015 ), household size ( Khonje et al., 2015 ; Sodjinou et al., 2015 ), farming experience ( Bidzakin et al., 2018 ; Danso-Abbeam et al., 2018 ), farm size ( Danso-Abbeam et al., 2018 ; Kuwornu et al., 2017 ), household income ( Anang et al., 2016 ), participation in off-farm work ( Awunyo-Vitor et al., 2014 ), farmer group membership ( Danso-Abbeam et al., 2018 ; Anang et al., 2017 ), degree of specialization in farming ( Anang, 2018 ), location of the household ( Anang, 2018 ) and wealth of farmer ( Bidzakin et al., 2018 ).…”

Farmers’ Perceptions of the Warehouse Receipt System in Indonesia

“…In general, the factors influencing farmers' adoption of the agricultural technology include the farmers' characteristics, socio-economic and institutional characteristics, characteristics of the technology, a perception of need, and the households' risk-bearing capacity [48,50,51]. More specifically, previous research revealed that the factors influencing farmers' adoption of an agricultural technology package and mechanization in Ghana were age, gender, land size, farmers experiences, access to extension, credit availability, and availability of technology [51][52][53][54].…”