ABSTRACT Cocoa production, one of the most important economic activities in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, has for sometime now been bedevilled with several problems. The most important of these is the black pod disease caused by the Phytophthora megakarya strain of fungus, which is destroying pods in large quantities and thus causing substantial financial loss to cocoa farmers. Research has made available a tried and tested control technology whose adoption in the Ashanti Region is ve...
ABSTRACT The main objective of the study was to assess relationship between credit facilities and agricultural production of small-scale fanners in Mob Sub county, Tororo District. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, three specific research objectives were addressed: to determine the demographic characteristics that influences the accessibility of credit by small scale farmers in Mob Sub County, Tororo District, to determine the impact of credit facilities on small scale farming i...
Abstract: To increase groundnut production and farmers income using improved seed is crucial. However, few farmers were engaged in seed producing and marketing cooperative. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the factors that determine smallholder farmers’ decision to participate and level of members’ participation in seed producing and marketing cooperative. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select local seed business project intervention Kebeles for the anal...
Abstract: n Ethiopia, lower productivity of potato production has been one of the significant contributors to food insecurity. Considerable efforts have been made by the government, NGOs and researchers in generating, introducing and disseminating appropriate potato technologies to boost the production and productivity of potato though the adoption outcome is not as expected. Encouraging the use of improved potato varieties is the important policy measure to address the problem. However, thi...
ABSTRACT The horticulture industry in Kenya has been very successful in the last one and a half decades. This subsector has grown to become a major employer and foreign exchange earner. In 2014, fruits contributed Kshs. 51.5 billions accounting for 22% of the domestic value of horticultural produce. The sweet yellow passion fruit variety is gaining adoption in Mbeere South Sub-county due to its apparent adaptation to the hot arid conditions and a ready market. Efforts had been made to promote...
ABSTRACT The study set out to identify agglomeration externalities in Ghana’s soybean sector and to assess soybean output elasticities with respect to input-use. The study also analyzed the technical efficiency levels in the soybean sector and the effect of agglomeration externalities on productivity and technical efficiency of soybean farms. The study identifies some components of agglomeration externalities across the soybean sector and defines agglomeration externalities by two indexes;...
ABSTRACT This study aims to determine the differences in productivity and technical efficiency levels of maize producers in three ecological zones in Ghana. It also seeks to identify the sources of inefficiency and identify constraints faced by maize farmers within these ecological zones. The study used a cross section of 224 maize producers from the savannah, forest and transition zones in Ghana. This research adopts the Metafrontier and the stochastic frontier models to compute the technic...
ABSTRACT The study assessed the effectiveness of rice farmer’s strategies in building climate resilience for sustainable adaptation in the Kasena-Nankana East Municipality in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The study adopted the mixed method approach which uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. Both questionnaires and interview guide were used in the collection of primary and secondary data with a sample size of 96 rice farmers and 8 key informants. The study revealed that; rice fa...
ABSTRACT The coffee subsector in Kenya has been characterized by low and declining productivity at farm levels. Over the years, coffee research in Kenya has developed technologies that are aimed at increasing the productivity and improving the quality of coffee produced. Despite many agronomic recommendations, coffee productivity has not increased with increase in acreage. This may be attributed to the interaction between the recommendations and prevailing socioeconomic factors experienced by...
ABSTRACT Makueni County in Kenya is one of the leading producers of mango fruits. The County experiences surplus mango production that ends up being wasted or sold at throw away prices due to imperfect marketing. The marketing of fruits is liberalized giving rise to multiple channels. Given the freedom to select a channel, different transaction costs such as information cost, negotiation and contract enforcement have not been evaluated in relation to farmer‟s choice of marketing channel. T...
ABSTRACT This capstone project idea is to develop a system called FarmConnect—a mobile application platform that connects investors with smallholder farmers who are seeking funding for their farm operations. Such funding will help the farmer operate at full capacity hence increasing the level of food security in Ghana. FarmConnect will be able to provide interested investors with concrete data that will inform their decision to invest in a chosen smallholder farmer. Also, an example farmer ...
Abstract. Pepper (Capsicum spp.) production by farmers in southwestern Nigeria is limited by low yield due to poor genetic potentials of most cultivars available, use of poor quality seeds, disease infestation, and poor managment practices among others. To overcome the constraints, some varieties of pepper developed at Embrapa Brazil and NIHORT Nigeria, were introducedfollowed bytraining of 100 small scale farmers . Participatory field demonstrations of the improved varieties of pepper were c...
ABSTRACT Background: Pesticides are used by individuals especially farmers to prevent crop damage by harmful insects or plant pests. In the process of preventing and eradicating pests, individuals are occupationally and environmentally exposed to pesticides. Although pesticides help in preventing crop destruction by pests, they are toxic, and exposure can result in a number of health effects. This study aimed at evaluating pesticide residues in human urine samples of farmers who apply pestici...
ABSTRACT This study investigated the market orientation of round potato farmers in the southern highlands of Tanzania. A market oriented farmer, assumed to be a maximiser of short run profit, is expected to select varieties with higher profit potential and in accordance with market preferences and would allot more acreage to a more profitable crop than those needed for home consumption. Thus, this study sought to achieve the following objectives: to determine the market preferences for round...
Low income of the arable crop farmers is sine qua-non to abject poverty associated with most of the farmers;hence the study evaluated the determinants of poverty among arable crop farmers using sustainable soilmanagement techniques (SSMT) in Imo State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used toselect 209 arable crop farmers for this study. Information on the objectives of this study was elicited from thesampled respondents through a well structured questionnaire. Data were ana...