Estimating the Efficiency of Maize Farmers in Ghana

Abstract

A lot of investment has been made in the agricultural sector of Ghana to increase agricultural production through the introduction of new technologies. However, it has been observed that despite efforts being made by the government through the introduction of new varieties of maize the productivity of maize farmers is generally low. This study sought to assess the efficiency of farmers in the Nkoranza area. The study employed the stochastic frontier model by using a onestage process in Frontier computer programme and using cross-sectional data of the 2008 major cropping season. Socioeconomic and management practices that influence technical efficiency were determined. Input elasticities as well as allocative efficiency of the farmers were also determined. A mean technical efficiency of 91 percent was obtained for maize farmers. There was a distinct variability in mean technical efficiency among farmers cultivating the improved variety and those cultivating the local variety. Variety of maize cultivated by the farmer, sex of the farmer, experience of maize farmer, distance of the farm from the farmers' residence and number of times a farmer gets extension visits were found to have significant effect on technical efficiency. Allocatively, maize farmers were found to be over utilizing labour but under utilizing fertilizer and seeds in the study area. The study recommended that more extension staff should be trained so that their services could be extended to more farmers.

Resource use efficiency among maize farmers in Ghana

“…This suggests that if more lands were cultivated, it would have led to an increase in maize output by 1101 kg among the farmers in the study area. This result is in line with the findings of similar studies conducted by [3,25,[27][28][29]32].…”

“…That is, Ghanaian maize farmers can increase their maize output by employing more of the resources (fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide, seed, labour, land, manure and capital) employed in maize production. This finding is in agreement with the results of some studies on resource use efficiency in maize production in Ghana and other parts of the world [3,[27][28][29], even though it disagrees with the findings of [23].…”

“…The asterisks indicate levels of significance. *** is significant at 1%, ** is significant at 5%, and * is significant at 10% The implication is that some level of inefficiency in input utilization is possible among maize farmers since education is expected to have a positive effect on efficiency [28]. With high levels of farming experience, the productivities and efficiencies of maize farmers in Ghana are expected to be on the higher side since experienced farmers could predict appropriate husbandry practices for efficient maize production.…”

“…Therefore, it is important to determine the efficiency of resource use in maize production in Ghana so that government and individuals interested in investing in maize production in Ghana will know the levels at which production inputs should be employed in order for them to achieve desired yields [30]. This is because apart from studies conducted by [3,28] on resource use efficiency in maize production in Ghana, no other economic study has considered the subject in the country even though it has been done for other crops [5,16,21,30,31], making literature on resource use efficiency in maize production in Ghana very limited. The findings of [3] showed that there was limited use of fertilizers, weedicides and improved seeds by maize farmers in the Asamankese district of Ghana.…”

“…The findings of [3] showed that there was limited use of fertilizers, weedicides and improved seeds by maize farmers in the Asamankese district of Ghana. Also, the results of the work of [28] revealed that maize farmers in the Nkoranza area of Ghana overutilized labour and underutilized fertilizer and seeds.…”