Disadoption of Improved Agronomic practices in Cowpea and Maize at Ejura-Sekyeredumase and Atebubu-Amantin Districts in Ghana

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1 Sustanable Agrculture Research; Vol. 5, No. 3; 2016 ISSN X E-ISSN Publshed by Canadan Center of Scence and Educaton Dsadopton of Improved Agronomc practces n Cowpea and Maze at Ejura-Sekyeredumase and Atebubu-Amantn Dstrcts n Ghana Patrca P. Acheampong 1, Patterson O. Bonsu 1, Hde Omae 2 & Fujo Nagumo 2 1 CSIR-Crops Research Insttute, Ghana 2 Japan Internatonal Research Center for Agrcultural Scences, Japan Correspondence: Patrca P. Acheampong, CSIR - Crops Research Insttute, Kumas, Ghana. E-mal: ppacheampong@gmal.com Receved: March 22, 2016 Accepted: May 29, 2016 Onlne Publshed: June 29, 2016 do: /sar.v5n3p93 URL: Abstract The mproved cowpea and maze producton methods developed n Ghana wth the help of farmers are fundamental to ncreasng cowpea and maze productvty. Improved agronomc practces n cowpea and maze producton beleved to ncrease yeld are row plantng, the of cover crops and the of poultry manure. However, the practces are gradually losng ther mportance n cowpea and maze producton. The paper therefore explores the extent to whch varous factors affect the dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces and reasons behnd dsadopton. Multstage samplng technques were d to select hundred farmers from two cowpea and maze producng areas. Results revealed adopton of cover crops, row plantng, poultry manure dropped from 13% to 6%, 99% to 53% and 77% to 10%, respectvely. Fnancal constrant, dffculty n, tme and labour ntensty were reasons for dsadopton. Emprcal results revealed that number of years n educaton, gender of farm hohold head, hohold sze, access to extenson and hred labour nfluenced dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces. Access to producton nputs and contnuous supply of nformaton are mportant for farmers contnuous of mproved agrcultural technologes. Keywords: agronomc practce, cowpea, dsadopton, Ghana, mproved, maze 1. Introducton Agrcultural research and technologcal mprovements are fundamental to ncreasng agrcultural productvty to meet demand for food and n so dong reduce poverty. The mpact of technologcal change to agrcultural productvty n developng countres has been wdely acknowledged (Sundng & Zlberman, 2000; Doss, 2006). Technologcal change can have massve effects on lvelhoods; mproved ncome, creaton of labour opportuntes for the poor, reduced food prces, envronmental sustanablty, and other sectors of the economy. In the world over where agrcultural transformaton process has been documented, agrcultural productvty growth has been drven by mproved farm technologes, ncludng mproved seeds, and mproved agronomc practces (Gabre-Madhn & Johnston, 2002). In Ghana, mproved agrcultural technology has been stressed n key plannng documents as an mportant means for achevng ncreased productvty (Mnstry of Food and Agrculture, 2007; Mnstry of Food and Agrculture, 2010). The mproved cowpea and maze producton methods, developed n Ghana wth the help of farmers, seemed to be partcularly well suted to the needs of farmers and could be consdered low-external nput sustanable agrculture technologes. The methods nclude the of mproved dsease resstance varetes, pre- and post-flowerng nsectcdes, and mproved agronomc practces (row plantng, mnmum tllage, spacng, fertlzer applcaton etc). Most mportantly, the methods have been repeatedly shown to double cowpea and maze yelds n smallholder farmers felds from the current average yeld of 1.3mt/ha to yelds of about 2.6mt/ha for cowpea and 1.7ha -1 to 6ha -1 n maze (Mnstry of Food and Agrculture, 2013). Many setbacks account for the nablty of farmers to produce enough cowpea and maze. Although there have been some technologcal changes n cowpea and maze research resultng n yeld ncreases, there are stll major constrants lmtng hgher productvty. How to reduce the wde gap between actual (on-farm) and potental (on-staton) yelds s the ssue that needs to be addressed by both researchers and development workers. Whlst researchers follow recommended practces, smallholder farmers are unable to do so due to constrants of access to mportant nputs. 93

2 Socal researchers have tred n many ways to explan agrcultural technology adopton (Feder et al., 1985; Doss, 2006) for decades. The technology adopton lterature has focd manly on technology adopton by smallholder farmers n developng countres. Dfferent factors, rangng from bophyscal characterstcs to soco-economc farm-hohold characterstcs and nsttutonal factors have been nvestgated for ther nfluence on technology adopton. The most mportant factors lmtng the uptake of new agrcultural technologes ncludes: rsk and uncertanty, knowledge and educaton, proftablty, nput avalablty, credt constrants, tenure securty, labor avalablty, bophyscal factors, market ncentves and socal networks (Marenya & Barrett, 2007; Kasse et al., 2009; Conley & Udry, 2010; Teklewold et al., 2013). Dsadopton s an mportant ssue n the study of agrcultural technologes adopton n helpng to dentfy factors that boost long-term adopton or of technologes. Nell and Lee (2001) documented that farmers n Honduras dsadopt the practce of legume-maze crop rotaton at a rate of 10% per year due to emergence of weed speces that ncrease labor requrements. Ths ncreased labor requrement has also been noted as a reason for the dsadopton of the Systems of Rce Intensfcaton (SRI) n Madagascar (Moser & Barrett, 2006). Moreover, Marenya and Barrett (2007) also found that farm sze, value of lvestock owned, off farm ncome, famly labor supply, educatonal attanment, and female hohold head are sgnfcant factors n dscouragng farmers of ntegrated natural resource management practces n Western Kenya. Further, Wendland and Slls (2008) document that hohold preference; resource endowments, rsk and uncertanty affect hohold s decsons on contnued of soybeans n Togo and Benn. Improved agronomc technologes are seen by agrcultural researchers and extenson personnel as prerequste for ncreased agrcultural productvty. In the forest savannah transton agroecologcal zone, many mproved agrcultural technologes were dssemnated to farmers by the Ghana Grans Development Project. A study by Danky et al. (2006) reported of 100% adopton rate of many mproved agronomc practces n the Forest Zone. Farmers agreed that by adoptng mproved producton technologes, ther yelds and overall producton ncreased, and they made more proft from cowpea and maze cultvaton. Despte ther obvous benefts and ntensve extenson efforts we fnd that adopton rates have generally been reduced, the average rate of dsadopton (the percentage of hoholds who have tred the method but who no longer practce t) has been hgh. The purpose of ths study was to explore factors nfluencng farmers decson to dscontnue the of mproved technologes and to make recommendatons for future of agrcultural technologes. Ths study thereby rases a number of questons about mproved cowpea and maze technologes: What drve farmers to dsadopt mproved agronomc technologes? What socoeconomc factors affect contnuous of mproved technologes? 2. Research Methodology 2.1 Study Area Data was collected from Ejura Sekyere-dumase dstrct n Ashant regon and Atebubu Amantn dstrct of the Brong Ahafo regon. The regon les between longtudes W 0 15 and, W 2 25 and lattudes N 5 50 and. N 7 46 It has the wet sem-equatoral clmate wth double maxmum ranfall rangng between 170cm and 185cm per annum. Temperature s farly unform rangng between 27ºC and 31ºC. Ashant Regon has two vegetaton zones, the wet sem-equatoral forest zone whch covers more than half of the Regon and the transtonal savannah woodland whch covers the north-eastern parts of the Regon. The Ashant Regon has two major sol types, the Forest and savannah Ochrosols. The sols have a farly hgh mosture holdng capacty (Adu, 1992). The sols are good for cereals and legumes producton. 2.2 Samplng and Data Collecton Multstage samplng technque was d to select the respondents. A purposve samplng strategy was d to select the dstrcts wth predomnant cultvaton of maze and cowpea. Purposve samplng ensures that certan mportant segments of the target populaton are represented and also allows selecton of rch nformaton that provdes nsght nto the ssues of central mportance to the research (Patton, 1990). Ths was followed by a purposve samplng of fve vllages each from each dstrct usng a lst of maze and cowpea vllages provded by the Dstrct drectorate of Agrculture and based on proporton of cowpea and maze producton. Fnally a smple random samplng was then d to select 50 farm hoholds each from each of the selected dstrcts makng a total of 100 farm hoholds. The selectons were done from a lst of maze and cowpea farm hoholds. The sample frame conssted of all farmers of cowpea and maze farm hoholds from each of the selected vllages. Usng structured questonnare, data on general hohold and soco-economc characterstcs (e.g. age, educaton, gender, farm ownershp, land sze) and on nsttutonal factors (e.g. access to credt, access to extenson) was collected. Traned enumerators who were well nformed about the objectves and contents of the 94

3 survey admnstered the questonnare. 2.3 Analytcal Framework The probt regresson model was d to determne the factors that nfluence farmers partcpaton n seed broadcastng due to the dchotomous nature of the dependent varable. The reasonng for the of the probt model over the logt model s as a result of ts ablty to constran the utlty value of the decson to jon varable to le wthn 0 and 1, and ts ablty to resolve the problem of heteroscedastcty (Green, 2003). Partcpaton n any mproved agrcultural technology was captured as a dummy varable wth the value of 1 assgned to that farmer and 0 for otherwse. Followng from Greene (2003), the bnary probt for the two choce models can be wrtten as: The probt model s gven as: Where: * * 1 f Y Y Y * 0 f Y 0 2 XB ( XB) 1 1 dx 2 X 2 py F XB e (2) (1) X (1, x, x..., x ) 1 2, k (3) X ( 0, 1..., k ) (4) The specfc emprcal model for the determnaton of factors nfluencng mproved agronomc practces s gven as: Y gen Age edu Exp Fsze HHsze credt hredl Extt 8 9 (5) Where Y and represents partcpaton n an mproved technology and error term respectvely. The defntons of the potental explanatory varables and ther a pror expectatons are presented n Table 1. The margnal effect of the varables s calculated usng the formula: M arg nal effects ( Z) (6) Where are the coeffcents of the varables and ( Z ) are the cumulatve normal dstrbuton value assocated wth the mean dependent varable from the Probt estmaton. Table 1. Defnton of varables and expectatons Varable Defnton Expected sgn Gender 1= male;0= Female + Age Age of farmer n years +/- Educaton Educaton of farmer n years + Hohold sze Number of famly members + Experence Number of years n cowpea and maze farmng + Farm sze Total land n acres owed by the farmer + Tmes of extenson vst Tmes of extenson vst - Hred Hred labour - Credt Access to formal credt + 95

4 2.4 Descrpton of Varables Used n the Model The gender of the farmer s a dummy varable that takes the value of 0 f the head of the hohold s female, and 1 f male. The general asserton s that women are generally dscrmnated aganst n terms of access to external nputs and nformaton. Gender of the hohold head has been found to nfluence the decson to adopt new technologes (Langyntuo & Mekura, 2005). Age may be found to negatvely nfluence the decson to partcpate n new technologes or otherwse. It may be that older farmers are more rsk-averse and less lkely to be flexble than younger farmers and thus have a lesser lkelhood of partcpatng n new technologes. It could also be that older people have more experence and are n a better poston to assess characterstcs of new technology than younger farmers, and hence a hgher probablty of partcpaton. The expected sgn of the coeffcent on age s therefore ndetermnate. Educaton and farmng experence enhance the ablty of farmers to perceve, to nterpret correctly and to undertake actons that wll approprately reallocate ther resources. More educated farmers are typcally assumed to be better able to process nformaton and search for approprate technologes to allevate ther producton constrants. Therefore educaton s expected to postvely nfluence the decson to broadcast seeds of cowpea and maze varetes. Farmng experence s also expected to postvely nfluence the partcpaton n mproved agronomc practces n cowpea and maze varetes beca experenced farmers have better knowledge and are able to make nformed decsons. Farm sze has been found to nfluence partcpaton n seed broadcastng postvely (Langyntuo & Mekura, 2008) ndcatng that hoholds wth larger land holdngs allocate more land to mproved varetes. Farmers wth larger farm holdngs are more lkely to try new technologes as they can afford to devote part of ther feld to try out the new technology. It s hypotheszed that larger land holdngs wll postvely nfluence partcpaton n seed broadcastng of cowpea and maze varetes. 3. Results and Dscusson 3.1 Descrptve Statstcs on Sampled Hoholds Table 2 presents the descrptve statstcs of the key soco-demographc varables of the respondents. Of the total respondents 76% were males and 24% were females. The mean age was 41 years and Mean hohold sze was Table 2. Descrptve statstcs of soco-demographc by survey dstrcts Varable Pooled(N=100) Ejura Sekyeredumase(N=51) Atebubu Amantn(N=49) Demographcs Proporton of males Proporton of females Age of farmer (Years) Number of famly members Number of years n Educaton Number of years n farmng Farm characterstcs Farm sze(acres) Land tenure Inherted Purchase Sharecrop Sol fertlty Rch Medum Poor Insttutonal factors Access to extenson Access to credt Hred labour

5 4 persons smlar to the regonal average of 4.1 and natonal average of 4.4 persons n a famly (Ghana Statstcal Servces, 2012). Mean years n educaton was 4 mplyng hgh llteracy rates amongst respondents. However, experence n farmng was qute substantal across the dstrcts as the average experence n farmng was 17years. Average farm sze was 6.3 acres (2.52ha) hgher than the natonal average landholdngs of 2 hectares (Mnstry of Food and Agrculture, 2013). Majorty (62%) of respondents nherted the land they d for cultvaton. Majorty (66%) clamed that ther land was poor n terms of sol fertlty. Ths asserton makes the cultvaton of cowpea-maze rotaton necessary as cowpea has the ablty to fx ntrogen thus enhancng the fertlty of the sol. Poor access to extenson may hnder farmers from accessng mproved technologes. Few (14%) respondents across the study area reported of accessng extenson servces n croppng season. Lack of credt serves as dsncentve to accessng mportant nputs for many farm actvtes. Only a few (13%) respondents had access to formal credt across the dstrct. 3.2 Prevous and Current Adopton of Improved Cowpea and Maze Agronomc Technologes Farmers prevous and current adopton of mproved agronomc practces on maze and cowpea were sought. The mproved cowpea and maze technologes were hghly researched and ntroduced to farmers n the 1990s. Tables 3 and 4, show the proporton of farmers on prevous and current adopton of mproved cowpea and maze agronomc practces. The results showed that majorty of respondents prevously d recommended agronomc practces n maze and cowpea cultvaton. For row plantng prevous adopton was massve as majorty (99%) of respondents across the dstrcts practced row plantng. Danky et al. (2006) n ther studes of cowpea and maze technologes adopton n Ghana reported that almost all farmers ntervewed practced row plantng. Farmers prevous adopton of most of the mproved agronomc practces were not surprsng as more than a decade ago the mproved practces were developed wth farmers n the study area. Partcpatory development of crop technologes s the way forward to ncreasng adopton of technologes. Table 3. Proporton of farmers on prevous adopton of mproved maze and cowpea agronomc practces Varable Pooled(N=100) Ejura Sekyeredumase (N=51) Atebubu Amantn(N=49) Yes No Yes No Yes No Use of cover crop Selecton of plantng materal from dsease free and matured plants Row Plantng at recommended spacng Monoculture for maxmum yeld Applcaton of fertlzers Applcaton of poultry manure Approprate weed control to avod competton Farm montorng, uprootng and destructon of dseased plants Establshment of fre belts Tmely harvestng From Table 4 most people contnued to most of the recommended practces. However there were sgnfcant changes n the rates of adopton from prevous rates of adopton for some of the mproved agronomc practces. Specfcally, adopton of cover crops, row plantng, poultry manure dropped from 13% to 6%, 99% to 53% and 77% to 10% respectvely. For the cover crops, the mucuna that was d as a cover crop s not d as food n 97

6 the study area ths mght be the reason for ts unpopularty n the study area. The fndng s consstent wth that of Ragasa et al. (2013) who found that farmers n the forest transton area n Ghana dd not adopt cover crops due to non of the ntroduced cover crop. For row plantng t s dffcult for most farmers to practce beca t requres sgnfcant addtonal labor nputs and smallholder farmers who are already credt constraned s less able to take advantage of the technology. For nstance 45% of cowpea and maze farmers n the study area reported practcng broadcastng whenever they were cash trapped. The sgnfcant drop n the rates of adopton of poultry manure mght be due to avalablty and accessblty of the poultry manure n the study area. The dffculty n gettng poultry manure n large quanttes mght have affected adopton. Boateng (2000) observed that Ghanaan farmers choose nputs based on factors such as avalablty and accessblty. Bulkness, dffculty n transportng, offensve odour, among others (Alm et al., 2006) dscourage farmers from usng poultry manure. Table 4. Adopton and dsadopton of mproved agronomc technologes n producton seasons Varable Contnuous Pooled(N=100) Dscontnuous Ejura Sekyeredumase (N=51) Contnuous Dscontnuous Atebubu Amantn(N=49) Contnuous Dscontnuous Use of cover crop eg mucuna Selecton of plantng materal from dsease free and matured plants Row Plantng at recommended spacng Monoculture for maxmum yeld Applcaton of fertlzers Applcaton of poultry manure Approprate weed control to avod competton Farm montorng, uprootng and destructon of dseased plants Establshment of fre belts Tmely harvestng Table 5 shows farmers reasons for not plantng n rows. Of the 45 farmers broadcastng seeds, 15% mentoned fnancal constrant as man reason for dscontnuous of row plantng. Credt s very expensve n Ghana as commercal banks charge hgh nterest rates and also demand collateral whch prevents farmers from accessng credt. About 44 % mentoned dffculty n as reasons for dsadopton. Most of the technologes ntroduced to farmers devate from farmers ndgenous practces. Farmers were only plantng at random wth famly labour. The new technology ntroduced requres farmers to purchase rope, lne the rope n the feld and then plant at a specfed dstance. They therefore fnd t dffcult adaptng to the new methods. Labour ntensty and tme consumpton were cted by about 29% and 11% of respondents respectvely as reasons for dsadopton of row plantng. Addtonal labour and tme are requred to lne the rope and measure the dstance for plantng of the seeds. In seed broadcastng a person could plant a hectare of maze wth ease. Increase labor requrement has been reported as man reason for dsadopton of mproved agronomc technologes (Moser & Barrett, 2006). 98

7 Table 5. Reasons for dscontnuous of row plantng technology Parameter Frequency Percent Fnancal constrant Tme consumng Dffcult to Labour ntensve Total Factors Influencng Dsadopton of Improved Agronomc Practces The probt model was d to estmate the parameters of the determnants of factors nfluencng dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces by farmers n Southern Ghana. The STATA software was d to estmate these parameters as well as the margnal effects. The McFadden R-squared value ndcates that 51 percent of the varaton n the dependent varable was explaned by the ndependent varables. The sgnfcant Wald X 2 of wth 9 degrees of freedom ndcates that at least one of the varables n the model had a sgnfcant effect on dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces. Table 6. Determnants of factors nfluencng dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces n cowpea and maze producton Varable Coeffcent Std err. Margnal effect AGE YEARSEDU *** GENDER *** HHSIZE ** EXPER FSIZE EXTVISIT * ACREDIT HIREDL * Number of observatons 100 Log lkelhood Mcfadden r-squared 0.51 Note:***sgnfcant at 1%; **sgnfcant at 5%; *sgnfcant at 10%. Number of years n educaton, gender of farm hohold head, hohold sze, access to extenson and hred labour nfluenced dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces n cowpea and maze n the study area (Table 6). Probablty of dsadopton s sgnfcantly related to the number of years a farmer had been to school. Every addtonal year added to the schoolng year ncreases the probablty of dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces. The effect of educaton on mproved agronomc practces was expected a pror, however, the results was surprsng snce educaton was expected to reduce the probablty of dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces. In ths study the average number of years n schoolng was about 4 years ndcatng that majorty of the farmers were llterates and ths mght have mpacted on the overall results. Moser and Barrett (2002) found that more educated farmers were lkely to contnue the of agrcultural technology based on ther study of dsadopton of rce ntensfcaton n Madagascar contrary to the fndng n ths study. The results ndcate that males are more lkely to dsadopt mproved agronomc practces. Beng male ncreases the probablty of dsadopton by 2.7 percent. Improved agronomc practces s tme consumng and men fnd t dffcult allocatng more tme to a farm actvty than women as men ther tme more on other nonagrcultural actvtes. Hohold sze correlated postvely wth dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces. The probablty of 99

8 dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces ncreases by 7.4% wth 1% ncrease n the number of people n the hohold. The mplcaton s that famly labour s d more n nonagrcultural actvtes. Farmers normally allocate famly labour between on-farm and off-farm employment. Marenya and Barrett (2007) also found that famly labor supply and educatonal attanment are sgnfcant factors n dscouragng farmers of ntegrated natural resource management practces n Western Kenya, consstent wth the study results. The results also revealed that the probablty of dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces s correlated wth hred labour. A percentage ncrease n hred labour resulted n 9% ncrease n dsadopton. More labour s needed for lnng and peggng, fertlzer applcaton and many other mproved agronomc practces. Ths result s consstent wth Nell and Lee (2001) who found that farmers n Honduras dsadopted the practce of legume-maze crop rotaton due to ncrease labour requrement. The probablty of dsadopton of mproved agronomc practces ncreases wth less extenson vsts. The results revealed that a 1% decrease n extenson vsts ncrease dsadopton by 10%. Contnuous supply of nformaton s mportant for farmers contnuous of agrcultural technology. 4. Concluson and mplcaton The study has explored the prevous and current adopton of mproved agronomc technologes of maze and cowpea. Results revealed that majorty of producers d mproved agronomc practces. Most farmers however had stopped usng mproved agronomc technologes. For nstance, adopton of cover crops, row plantng, poultry manure dropped from 13% to 6%, 99% to 53% and 77% to 10% respectvely. Reasons for dsadopton nclude fnancal, labour ntensty, tme consumng and dffculty n. The explanaton for the dsappontng adopton dynamcs of mproved agronomc practces s the ntense labour requrement for the actvtes. There s weak agrcultural fnancng n Ghana and most smallholder farmers choose to nvest ther savngs on other hohold consumpton requrements. Therefore smallholders ratonally choose not to nvest n mproved agronomc practces thus the mportance of labour ntensty n explanng adopton patterns of mproved cowpea and maze technologes cannot be underestmated. Lack of credt almost makes t mpossble for farmers to adopt technologes especally those that requre addtonal nputs lke row plantng and applcaton of poultry manure. Cost of credt s too hgh n Ghana and Government nterventon has, for the most part, been neffectve. For example nterest rates are determned by prvate commercal banks who consder moral hazards and adverse selecton as reasons for hgh nterest rates. The requrements for loan acquston due to the aforementoned reasons tend to result n the excluson of small farmers from borrowng. The need for government nterventon for access to credt s mportant f farmers were to swtch to new agrcultural technologes. Educaton, gender of farm hohold head, hohold sze, access to extenson and hred labour are mportant sgnfcant factors determnng dsadopton. Snce hred labour affected dsadopton, the need for more mechanzed agrculture throughout the country s mperatve. Investment n agrcultural mechanzaton wll enable farmers to ntensfy producton and ncrease productvty. Insttutonal factors such as access to extenson and credt are also mportant n determnng dsadopton. Extenson to farmer rato s estmated at 1:1300 a stuaton that makes t practcally mpossble for many farmers to beneft from the servces of extenson offcers. There s the need for more tranng and recrutment of extenson agents to close the gap. Those already on the feld are poorly resourced to undertake any effectve actons. Extenson must be resourced to enable regular supply of nformaton to farmers to ncrease adopton. Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to West Afrca Agrcultural Productvty Programme (WAAPP) and Japan Internatonal Research Center for Agrcultural Scences (JICAS) for fnancal support. References Adu, S. V. (1992). Sols of the Kumas Regon, Ghana. Memor No.8. SRI. Kumas. Alm, T., Olubode-Awosola, O. O., & Idowu, E. O. (2006). Economc Ratonale of Commercal Organc Fertlzer Technology n vegetable producton n Osun state Ngera. Journal of Appled Hortculture, 8(2), Boateng, K. (2000). Effects of applcaton of poultry manure on growth, yeld and economc returns of Okra growth n the forest zones of Ghana. Ghana Journal of Hortculture, 1, Conley, T., & Udry, C. (2009). Learnng About a New Technology: Pneapple n Ghana, Wth Tm Conley. Amercan Economc Revew, 100(1), Danky, A. A., Asafo- Adje, B., Hossan, M. A., Dashell, B. K., Adu-Dapaah, H., & Anchrnah, V. (2006). Adopton of mproved cowpea/maze (Vgna unguculata(l. Walp) technologes n Ghana. Ghana Journal of Agrcultural Scence, 39(1),

9 Doss, C. R. (2006). Analyzng technology adopton usng mcrostudes: Lmtatons, challenges, and opportuntes for mprovement. Agrcultural Economcs, 34(3), Doss, C. R., Mwang, W., Verkujl, H., & de Groote, H. (2003). Adopton of Maze and Wheat Technologes n Eastern Afrca: A Synthess of the Fndngs of 22 Case Studes. CIMMYT Economcs Workng Paper Mexco, D.F.: CIMMYT. Feder, G., Just, R. E., & Zlberman, D. (1985). Adopton of agrcultural nnovatons n developng countres: A survey. Economc Development and Cultural Change, 33(2), Ghana Statstcal Servces (GSS). (2012) populaton & housng census, summary report of fnal results. Ghana Statstcal Servce, May, Accra, Ghana. Gabre-Madhn, E., & Johnston, B. (2002). AcceleratngAfrca s structural transformaton: Lessons from Asa. In T. S. Jayne, M. Isaac & A. K. Gem (eds.), Perspectves on Agrcultural Transformaton: AVew from Afrca. Nova Scence, New York, USA. Kasse, M., Zkhal, P., Manjur, K., & Edwards, S. (2009). Adopton of organc farmng technologes: Evdence from sem-ard regons of Ethopa. Natural Resources Forum, 33, Langyntuo, A., & Mekura, M. (2008). Assessng the nfluence of neghbourhood effects on the partcpaton n seed broadcastng of mproved agrcultural technologes n developng agrculture. AfJARE, 2(2), Langyntuo, A. S., & Mekura, M. (2005). Accountng for neghborhood nfluence n estmatng factors determnng the partcpaton n seed broadcastng of mproved agrcultural technologes. Selected Paper prepared for presentaton at the Amercan Agrcultural Economcs Assocaton Annual Meetng, Provdence, Rhode Island, July 24-27, Mattson, D. E. (1986). Statstcs-Dffcult Concept of Understandng Explanatons. Bolchanzy Carducc Publshers Inc, pp. 281, ,423 Marenya, P. P., & C. B. Barrett. (2007). Hohold-level determnants of adopton of mproved natural resources management practces among smallholder farmers n western Kenya. Food Polcy, 32(4), Mnstry of Food and Agrculture. (2007). Food and Agrculture Sector Development Polcy (FASDEP II), MoFA, Accra, Ghana. Mnstry of Food and Agrculture. (2010). Medum Term Agrculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) document (2010). Mnstry of Food and Agrculture, Accra, Ghana, September, Mnstry of Food and Agrculture (MoFA). (2013). Facts and Fgures. Statstcs, Research and Informaton Drectorate (SRID), Accra, Ghana. Moser, M. C., & Barrett, C. B. (2002). The System of Rce Intensfcaton n Practce: Explanng Low Farmer Adopton and Hgh Dsadopton n Madagascar. Workng paper. Department of Appled Economcs and Management Cornell Unversty. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualtatve Evaluaton and Research Methods. Sage publcatons, Beverly Hlls, Calforna. Ragasa, C. (2012) Gender and Insttutonal Dmensons of Agrcultural Technology Adopton: A Revew of Lterature and Synthess of 35 Case Studes. Selected Poster prepared for presentaton at the Internatonal Assocaton of Agrcultural Economsts (IAAE) Trennal Conference, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazl August, Sundng, D., & Zlberman, D. (2000). The agrcultural nnovaton process: research and technology adopton n a changng agrcultural sector. In B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (Eds.), Handbook of Agrcultural Economcs. Volume 1A Agrcultural Producton. Elsever, New York. Teklewold, H., Kasse, M. & Shferaw, B. (2013). Adopton of multple sustanable agrcultural practces n rural Ethopa. Journal of Agrcultural Economcs, 64(3), Wendland, K. J., & Slls, E. O. (2008). Dssemnaton of food crops wth nutrtonal benefts: Adopton and dsadopton of soybeans n Togo and Benn. Natural Resources Forum, 32,

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