Victor Owusu

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology | KNUST · Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension

Contract farming guarantees smallholder farmers a reliable market, allow them to access inputs and technical support, and thus improve their welfare. However, side selling is a major threat to the promotion and development of contract farming in Sub-Saharan Africa, including in Ghana. While there is growing interest in addressing this issue for foo...

Over the past three decades, the cereal subsector in Ghana has contributed immensely to food security in the country. However, limited evidence exists on the production performance of this subsector, particularly in terms of heterogeneities across agro-ecological zones. This paper analyzes the production technology and performance of the cereal sub...

This study analyzes the impacts of off-farm work on the technical efficiency (TE) of wheat production, using data collected from 549 farming households in China. Unlike previous studies that only capture one dimension of off-farm work, in this study, we consider multiple dimensions, including off-farm work participation status of household heads, l...

Although both income diversity and household consumption expenditure diversity are positively correlated with income, little is known about how the former affects the latter. This study investigates how and to what extent income diversity stimulates household consumption expenditure diversity, utilizing data collected by the China Social Survey. We...

Climate-stressed agro-ecological zones pose significant challenges to vulnerable farming households. This study analyzes the differences in the perceptions of the farming households to climate change and assesses their vulnerability at the agro-ecological zone level, using data from farming households in three agro-ecological zones of Ghana. The em...

One of the emerging challenges impinging on sustainable food production in sub-Saharan Africa is the invasion of the fall armyworm (FAW) pest. Data collected from farm households in different agro-ecological zones in Ghana and a Multivalued Treatment Effect (MVTE) model were used to argue that FAW management practices are key to stemming the debili...

Agriculture is one of the major economic sectors in Africa, and it predominantly depends on the climate. However, extreme climate changes do have a negative impact on agricultural production. The damage resulting from extreme climate change can be mitigated if farmers have access to accurate weather forecasts, which can enable them to make the nece...

This paper analyzes the impact of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) on maize yield, yield gap and net income in northern Ghana using an inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA). In this study, ISFM is restricted to the adoption of crop rotation (CR), inorganic fertilizer (FT), and farmyard manure (MN) either in isolation...

This study analyzes the impacts of adoption and intensity of agricultural mechanization on non-farm employment of rural women using the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) data. We capture mechanization adoption as a dichotomous decision and adoption intensity using three types of farming strategies: non-mechanized, semi-mechanized, and f...

It is an undeniable fact that climate change has negative effects on cocoa production and has thus led to reduced yields in Ghana. This has affected cocoa farmers living standards due to their high dependency on income from sales of cocoa dry beans. The study determined the causes, indicators, effects and mitigative strategies of climate change on...

Purpose Research efforts aiming to improve understanding of how various organisational relationships contribute to better food quality (FQ) in a constantly changing business environment are limited. This study examines the effects of supply chain (SC) organisations on the quality of food products across multi-tiered segments with dynamic business s...

The increasing usage of smartphones by practitioners in various fields of expertise is attracting global attention. However, scanty evidence exists on smartphone usage among rural farmers in developing countries. Using data collected from 1,286 rural farming households in five provinces in China, this study investigates the factors influencing rura...

Purpose The nexus between sustainable agri-food production and food security outcomes of farm households in sub-Saharan Africa is attracting policy attention. This study analyzes the effects of crop diversity on the incidence of food scarcity, dietary diversity, and the sale and consumption of own crops. Design/methodology/approach The study uses...

Food insecurity and poverty are major barriers to economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa, especially Ghana. Pursuing sustainable agricultural development through the promotion of agricultural innovations and investment in productive inputs is one of the surest approaches to addressing these barriers. However, land tenure issues are t...

The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) such as the internet, smartphones, and tablets has increased markedly. The present study examines how this adoption affects objective and subjective well-being inequality, using the 2018 China Family Panel Studies data. We employ the Gini coefficient to measure objective well-being ineq...

Farmers coping strategies against harvest failures have implication for future adaptation to such shocks. Previous studies on farmers’ vulnerability and response to shocks have emphasized on adaptation, at the expense of their coping to such shocks. Using a survey data from 299 farm households in northern Ghana, this study has analyzed farmers’ cop...

This study investigates the correlations between Chinese banana farmers’ perceptions of integrated water management technology (IWMT) and their adoption behaviors and examines the impact of IWMT adoption on farm performance. The results revealed that farmers’ IWMT adoption correlates significantly with their perceptions of whether IWMT adoption can...

In the face of climate uncertainties, farmers need advice on adaptation measures to manage climate risk in an efficient and user-friendly way. This study takes the case of a major cropping zone of Punjab province, Pakistan, which is reported among the climate-susceptible regions, to explore farmers' preferred ways of agricultural advisory and farme...

Climate extremes over the years have been a major concern for the globalized world. The hardest hit from these climate extremes are women farmers with low adaptive capacity. This study explored women farmers’ perceived indices of occurrence and severity of observed climate extremes in rural Ghana. Employing the qualitative method approach, eight fo...

Improved seed is one of the crucial ingredients for promoting agricultural productivity, farmers’ livelihood, and global food security. The present study uses an endogenous treatment regression model (ETRM) to evaluate the impacts of improved seed maize technology (ISMT) adoption on technical efficiency and productivity using data from maize farmer...

Climate variability presents an additional challenge to the agricultural sector and society’s livelihood due to persistent low rainfall and high temperatures. Women smallholder farmers who depend on agricultural production and have limited natural resources are observed to suffer the more from climate-related adverse effects. The aim of the study w...

Abstract CONTEXT Rainfall shocks pose a threat to farmers in rural West Africa especially in the wake of the recurrent climate variability and its impacts on agricultural production. Despite the harm they pose, limited empirical studies exist on the welfare implications of rainfall shocks on farmers' welfare in West Africa. In addition, the potenti...

Climate extreme events have significant impacts on the livelihoods of smallholder women farmers. The aim of the present study is to investigate the coping and adaptation measures that women farmers use to respond to specific climate extreme events. The data for the study comes from 187 smallholder women farmers from Upper West region of Ghana. The...

Purpose This article analyzes farmers' preferences for different nonindexed crop insurance alternatives, using discrete choice experiment data on cocoa farmers from southern Ghana. We examine farmers' attendance to attributes by comparing self-reported attribute nonattendance (ANA) to the behavior inferred from the choices. Design/methodology/appr...

Weather and climate extremes affect food crop production of women farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Women farmers use specific adaptation strategies to respond to weather and climate extremes confronting them. Most studies on the role of gender in the uptake of adaptation strategies have focused on gender differentiation and the ex-ante adaptation str...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03155-4

This paper analyses smallholder farmers' willingness to participate in crop insurance programs, using recent data from cocoa farmers in Ghana. Given the significance of output uncertainty and imperfect capital and insurance markets, we develop a theoretical framework to analyse how risk and ambiguity aversion, and liquidity constraints influence fa...

This study examines the impacts of artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) on livelihood assets using a representative data from individuals in major mining communities as well as non-mining neighbourhood areas in southern Ghana. It has applied Propensity Score Matching to investigate how participating in ASM affects the natural, physical, human, social...

This article analyses smallholder irrigation management transfer (IMT) scheme participation and its impacts on yield and net farm returns of rice farmers in northern Ghana. We apply the endogenous switching regression and control function approaches to account for both observed and unobserved policy-relevant drivers of farmers' decision to particip...

Improving productivity of cocoa farms while ensuring forests sustainability through cocoa agroforestry is increasingly gaining the attention of policy makers. Using data from cocoa farmers in rural areas of Southern Ghana, the present study analyzes farmer perceptions on economic and ecological benefits of cocoa agroforestry shade levels with non-p...

This study examines how the use of climate information affects climate change adaptation measure adopted by household heads, using data collected from the Upper West region of Ghana. By estimating a recursive bivariate probit model, we show that the use of climate information has no significant impact on the adoption of a climate change adaptation...

Research background: Despite the growing social recognition of the positive role played by organic farming in the conservation of natural resources and the reduction or elimination of the negative externalities of modern agriculture, the economic competitiveness of organic versus conventional agriculture is a contentious issue. Studies on scale eff...

Climate variability presents an additional challenge to the agricultural sector and society's livelihood due to persistent low rainfall and high temperatures. Women smallholder farmers who depend on agricultural production and have limited natural resources are observed to suffer the more from climate-related adverse effects. The aim of the study w...

This paper analyzes how a newly developed food product (potagurt) with nutritional and health benefits can be promoted in Ghana. We employ the hedonic modeling and contingent valuation methods to estimate monetary values attached to the product's attributes using 400 consumers in the Ashanti, Eastern, and Greater Accra regions of Ghana. The finding...

Many people in African countries derive their livelihoods from agriculture. Therefore, unfavourable environmental and climatic conditions render them more vulnerable to increasing food insecurity and poverty rates. However, few studies have investigated how farmers’ adaptation strategies affect farm productivity and household food security in the S...

The aim of the study was to investigate women smallholder farmers’ adaptation to climate variability derivatives in Savannah Ecological Zone of Ghana. Climate variability is considered to be one of global challenges, not only as a result of global low rainfall and high temperature, but also as a result of the low capacity of communities, individual...

The promotion of farm innovations, such as mineral fertiliser, is one of the strategies for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of zero hunger and poverty alleviation in developing countries. However, the adoption of mineral fertilisers has been low in Africa, particularly in Ghana. The present study not only analyses the impact of m...

This study analyzes the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies and the impact of adoption on yields and farm net returns of vegetable farmers in Southern Ghana. We employ a two-step multinomial logit model to account for selection bias that occurs when unobservable factors influence adoption of IPM and impacts on outcomes. The empi...

Food safety and quality issues in sub-Sahara Africa are receiving increasing attention from governmental and non-governmental organisations by raising awareness of food safety and quality incidents. This paper has examined the economic welfare implications of policy changes in relation to safety and quality among 400 beef consumers in Southern Ghan...

Ghana’s National Agricultural Research Systems have officially released 24 improved cassava varieties, which are high yielding, disease and pest resistant and early maturing. However, adoption of these varieties by mainly smallholder farmers is very low, leading to low yields and incomes. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the developme...

Preferences for crop insurance programs are closely linked to credit market imperfections. Understanding the credit constraints of small holder farmers and their attribute non-attendance in the preferences for crop insurance products provide better assessments of policy-relevant instruments needed to ensure participation in crop insurance policies...

The present paper has examined the welfare implications of safety and quality policy changes among beef consumers in Southern Ghana. The empirical results revealed profound heterogeneity in preferences for food safety and quality attributes at individual and segment levels. Four distinct consumer segments were revealed using a latent class model. W...

Climate variability (CCV) presents an additional challenge to the agricultural sector and society’s livelihood due its persistent low rainfall and high temperatures. Particularly to face the brunt of climate variability are women smallholder farmers who depend on agricultural production and have limited natural resources to enable them respond to t...

Many consumers are familiar with herbs but are consumers familiar with products produced out of herbs? Even though WHO (2001) states that in Africa, approximately 80% of the population takes some form of herbal remedies; the type of herbal product used for the herbal remedy is unknown. Investors in the herbal industry are aware of the industry's lu...

Achieving a sustainable food supply is crucial to meet the ever-increasing demand emanating from high population growth, rising consumer incomes, and high rates of urbanisation in developing countries including Ghana. The adoption of farm innovations in these countries has proven to be quintessential to the attainment of self-sufficiency in supply...

The present paper has examined the welfare implications of safety and quality policy changes among beef consumers in Southern Ghana. The empirical results revealed profound heterogeneity in preferences for food safety and quality attributes at individual and segment levels. Four distinct consumer segments were revealed using a latent class model. W...

This study determines the financial viability of the floricultural industry in Ghana using both discounting and non-discounting investment appraisal methods. The feasibility analysis suggests that large-scale floricultural firms are more profitable particularly with the production of cut flowers. However, investors with limited capital can venture...

Interest in functional foods has been growing in sub-Saharan Africa due to consumer concerns with diet and nutrition. This paper analyses consumer awareness, perceptions and effects of the determinants of consumer willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for Moringa bread in Ghana. An ordered probit model is employed. The empirical results indicate that...

Narrowing the gender technology gap in agricultural production has become a critical policy issue in sub-Saharan Africa. A better understanding of the gender technology gap is essential for policy formulation and programme planning to ensure equity in resource allocation, and household-level food security in low and middle income countries, such as...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for composite flour bread produced with a blend of 15-40 per cent cassava flour blended with wheat flour in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is based on interviews with 350 consumers in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions of Ghana to assess their awaren...

This article contributes to the pertinent literature by providing a gender perspective to organic-conventional technical efficiency comparative studies and to the debate on technical efficiency of organic and conventional agriculture. Data from 280 organic and 378 conventional cocoa farm from Suhum area in Ghana; segregated into 101 females and 557...

This study employs an ex-ante analytical approach to explore the financial viability of cocoa agroforestry systems in Ghana using cross-sectional data on smallholder cocoa farmers in the Western Region of Ghana. The empirical results generally show that cocoa agroforestry systems are profitable, but the medium shade tends to be more profitable. The...

A key policy strategy towards poverty reduction and ensuring food security in sub-Saharan Africa is to assist poor farmers who over-depend on rainfall to reduce variability in production and increase productivity through small-scale private pump irrigation. Despite the fact that the performances of large scale irrigation schemes have not been effic...

Given the increasing tension between food production and food demand in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the poor development of the rice sector in Africa, the present paper examines the impact of agricultural extension on adoption of chemical fertilizers and their impact on rice productivity in Ghana. A parametric approach was employed to account fo...

Evaluation of the four special initiatives of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Ghana.

This paper employed the endogenous switching regression and propensity score matching methods to analyse the impact of row-planting technology on rice productivity using 470 rice farms in Northern Ghana. The empirical findings showed that the adoption of row-planting technology exerted greater positive impact on rice yields of smallholder farmers....

Cocoa farmers in Suhum area have been cultivating conventional cocoa for several years. However, as at 2012 about 1,000 farmers had switched to the cultivation of cocoa organically. The question that arises is, what factors could have influenced this small fraction of farmers to adopt organic production practices, whilst the majority continue in co...

The present chapter analyzes the adoption of safer irrigation technologies under uncertainty perception with cross-sectional data on urban and peri-urban vegetable farmers in Kumasi of Ghana. Safer irrigation technologies ensure that vegetable production is safe when untreated wastewater is used as irrigation water in sub-Saharan Africa. The hypoth...

Soil erosion is one of the most important forms of land degradation that threatens continued and sustained agricultural production in Ghana. The most severely affected areas are the three northern regions especially Upper East Region, where large tracts of land have been destroyed by water erosion leading to soil depth reduction and decline in soil...

This study has examined the adoption of improved cassava varieties among 350 cassava farmers in the Sekyere South District of Ashanti region, Ghana. The improved cassava varieties introduced into district were Bankye Hemaa, Esam Bankye and Bankye Afisiafi. Fifteen percent of the respondents adopted at least one of the improved cassava varieties and...

As Ghana makes transition from low income to middle income status, a greater percentage of the population is demanding and eating high quality and safer food products. The demand surge for beef in particular has been phenomenal. The present paper analyses consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for beef product attributes using data collected...

This study examines the effects of land tenure systems on resource-use productivity and efficiency in the Upper East region of Ghana with data drawn from the Ghana Agricultural Production Survey. A stochastic frontier model is employed to analyse resource-use productivity and efficiency of the rice farms. The study establishes that rice farms under...