2009 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 128-140
The Upper West Region of Ghana faces a food crisis, and food production needs to be increased. The smallholder farmers who overwhelmingly dominate the region’s agricultural sector have few opportunities to improve agricultural productivity, mainly because of poor extension services, institutional and cultural constraints, and long adaptation to using traditional practices.
Major limitations to crop production in Ghana include low soil fertility, low and erratic rainfall, low yield potential of indigenous crop varieties, and poor crop management practices. Most smallholder farmers are ignorant of the potential benefits of improved seed and continue to grow own-saved seed. There is a need for closer interaction with farmers through extension services and on-farm demonstrations to create and increase awareness of the importance of improved seed.
Maize demonstration plots were established on farmers’ fields in the Upper West Region to introduce improved maize production technology and facilitate the use of high-yielding maize cultivars. I investigated the impact of these demonstrations on maize yields. For production function estimation, farmers’ data collected in the region in 2006 and 2008 were used. The estimation models showed that area size, labor input, fertilizer application, and seed cost per area (as a proxy of variety) made significant positive contributions to production; there was some positive impact on yield. Farmer-related constraints included poor availability or affordability of inputs such as hybrid seed and fertilizers. Farmers were still resorting to area expansion to increase yields, thus heavily burdening labor requirements. Differences in production of the new cultivars in the on-farm demonstration and from farmer-estimated functions were identified. Such differences highlighted the inefficiencies associated with farmers’ budgetary constraints.
To enable farmers to benefit fully from crop demonstrations, the program needs to be continued and expanded to cover more farmers, and channels for inputs and output markets need to be strengthened.
