Performance of the Fruit Crop Industry in Ghana: Empirical Results and Policy Implications

Abstract

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………… viiiThis dissertation is the final result of four years of Ph.D. study at the Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany, Faculty of Agriculture; Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development. During this time, a lot of people supported me in various ways making it virtually impossible to name them all here. However, this work will not be complete without expression of my sincere thanks to the following personalities: I am profoundly grateful to Prof. Dr. Bernhard Brümmer (Professor at the above mentioned department) for supervising me as a Ph.D. student. I am very grateful for his support, guidance and comments during the entire study period. I have benefited a lot from his wide methodological and theoretical knowledge. His expertise in efficiency and productivity analysis improved my research skills and has prepared me for the future challenges.My sincere thanks go to Prof. Dr. Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel (Professor at the above mentioned department) for being the second supervisor of this thesis. I am grateful for his helpful comments and evaluation of this dissertation. I thank him for his valuable advice on how to structure and focus the research to arrive at a good paper.My special appreciation goes to Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim (Professor at the above mentioned department) for being the examiner of my dissertation. I am grateful for his time and comments.I would like to thank Dr. Gunnar Breustedt and Dr. Sebastian Lakner for reviewing my progress reports papers. Their valuable contributions, feedback and experience help advanced my work. I am grateful to Nina Enke for taking time out of her busy schedule to proof read the thesis.I gratefully acknowledge the help I receive from all the people and institutions (i.e. students and extension officers as interviewers) during data collections. I thank all our respondents for their patience and cooperation. I thank my brother, Mr. Ebenezer Asante-Darko for taking time out of his busy schedule to assist me organize the field survey. I am grateful for the financial support from the Courant Research Center and Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Georg-August-University Göttingen during my field survey. I am grateful to all colleagues at the Department for all their support and help. xiv Last, but not the least, I want to thank Svenja Kleinetz, Calvin Kwesi Mensah and Ellinor Abena Mensah, Jayden Kwedwo Mensah and my entire family for their immense support, love and understanding. This thesis is dedicated to them.