Samuel Asuming-Brempong

University of Ghana | Legon · Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

This chapter explores which community-based technologies have the greatest potential for reducing poverty and vulnerability among many smallholder farmers in Ghana. To this end, the stochastic dominance test was applied to rank outcomes from the different technologies used by the smallholder farmers in the study area. To show the effect of the tech...

The aim of the study was to examine the factors that make up sustainable production for cocoa farmers in Ghana, focusing on the socio-economic dimensions of sustainability. The research combined two analytical approaches: (a) value chain mapping, which traces linkages from production through to final consumption of a good, including initial inputs,...

In any sector, policy dialogue is a critical component to efficient and harmonious policymaking and implementation. A joint sector review (JSR) is an annual review of the sector to identify where challenges are preventing coherent dialogue. In Ghana, the first agriculture JSR was instituted in 2008 with the goal of reaching a common point-of-view a...

Maize is a major staple crop in Ghana which needs to be produced optimally towards food security and commercialization. In relation to this the study adopts the stochastic frontier model to analyze technical efficiency of maize farms in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana using a cross sectional data of 232 farms. The findings demonstrate that the inpu...

This study assesses the determinants of income diversification of farm households in the Western Region of Ghana. A censored Tobit regression model was used to find the determinants of the degree of income diversification measured by the Simpsons Index of Diversity (SID). The results indicate that a total of 65% of households engage in non-farm inc...

The central role agriculture plays in the development of Ghana's economy has been recognized by several authors, particularly because Ghana's economy is basically agrarian. Nevertheless, the contributions agriculture can make to economic development depend on the policy environment within which agriculture thrives. Several policies, both general an...

A major element of low productivity at the farm level of smallholder farmers is high production costs which result in low competitiveness of the produce. Low produce prices, especially during harvests, also result in low returns to farmers. To help mitigate this problem in sorghum farming, the study sought to analyze the productivity and competitiv...

The sustainable development of the rice sector in Ghana is constrained by environmental, socioeconomic, research and development factors. Productivity is generally low, about 1 mt/ha under upland and rain-fed lowland rice ecologies which dominate rice production systems in the country. The release and diffusion of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) v...

Farm households in Ghana have benefited from the programs that promote high-yielding crop varieties and other complementary technologies. The use of these improved agricultural technologies is expected to enhance performance through increased yields and incomes. Despite the expected gains, these households operate at low levels of productivity. Evi...

The paper estimates the cost of tsetse control and treatment of trypanosomiasis and the benefits involved, using benefit-cost analysis. It also estimates the extent to which socio-economic characteristics of farmers affect the use of tsetse control techniques, using a maximum Likelihood-Binary Logit model. The results show that farmers will benefit...

This study examines the farm-specific technical efficiency of smallholder rice farmers in the Upper East region of Ghana, during the cropping year 2002-03. Farm-specific technical efficiency is estimated by stochastic production frontier function, using the maximum likelihood estimation method. The results show that smallholder rice farmers are tec...

this paper. The preparation of the discussion paper was supported by the IFPRI. The paper was prepared while the author was a Visiting Professor at the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. Dr David Wiley, the Director of the Center and other colleagues in the Center and in the Department of Agricultural Economics offered valuable ad...

Economic policies have had important implications for the role of agriculture in the socio-economic development of Ghana because of agriculture’s dominance of the economy. The performance of the agricultural sector has generally directed the overall economic performance since independence. The policy of market deregulation in Ghana, including agric...

Based on the concept of constrained social surplus maximisation, a mathematical programming model was used to analyse the market for cattle and beef within a competitive market framework. The January 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc (FCFA) by 50% relative to the French franc affected cattle trade flows and beef consumption in the West African Cent...

The objective of this paper is to document, assess and characterize the role Ghana’s agriculture has played as a safety net when the urban labor market suffered economic shocks. The study explores how agriculture influences non-agricultural dependent households. Specific attention is given to the implicit value of the informal insurance role that r...

The magnitude and direction of trade flows in cattle and beef, and how cattle production and beef consumption adjust in response to more open trade in the Central Corridor (an acronym for the sub-region that includes Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso) have been estimated. A mathematical programming approach was used to model trade in cat...

The dual purpose of the exchange rate (the price of a unit of foreign currency) as a means of allocating scarce foreign currency among competing uses and an important determinant of income distribution through its influence on the returns to those who produce or consume treadables, makes it a prime target as a policy tool, as has been experienced i...

Changing orchard sprayer technology and rising pesticide costs to fruit growers raise the need to analyze the profitability of alternative sprayer investments. This study analyzes investments in four orchard sprayers for use in Michigan apple production: an air blast sprayer, a tower boom sprayer, a tower boom sprayer equipped with electronic senso...

Constrained social surplus maximization was applied a s a tool t hat allowed u s to u se mathematical programming methods to ana lyze the market for cattle and beef within a competitive market framework. The J anuary 1994 devaluation o f the CFA franc by 50% relative to the French Franc affected cattle trade flows and beef consumption in the West A...

Agricultural land use and the management of agricultural lands in Ghana as evidenced from farmer practices have been analysed using descriptive and regression analysis. The analysis shows that different land management practices affect crop yields differently in the different ecological zones. Also, the types of land management practices farmers us...