Abstract
This chapter investigates the impact of technical intervention on the adoption of a set of improved rice production technologies, as well as on productivity and profit for smallholders in rainfed lowland areas in Northern Ghana. The key finding is that productivity and profit are significantly enhanced when modern varieties (MVs) and chemical fertilizer are adopted, coupled with water control techniques. This is essentially the transfer of the Asian Green Revolution to sub-Saharan Africa. Such transfer, however, is not truly successful unless information about the use of MVs and fertilizer are directly disseminated by extension activities.
This chapter draws on deGraft-Johnson et al. (2014)
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Notes
- 1.
Bunding and leveling ensure that water stored on the field is evenly distributed, and this promotes the uniform growth of plants as well as controls the growth of weeds. Adoption of these technologies implies that less time will be spent on crop care management. Planting by dibbling , which is usually practiced in upland field, helps ensure the efficient use of seeds and facilitates weeding, the application of fertilizer and harvesting.
- 2.
Note that some farmers in the region may have had prior knowledge of some of these technologies due to the introduction to large-scale irrigation schemes such as the Tano, Vea and Botanga constructed during the 1970s (Kranjac-Berisavljevic et al. 2003; Namara et al. 2011). However, because the adoption rates were much lower prior to the project phase (Table 5.2), the LRDP introduced these technologies formally to the communities.
- 3.
Dibbling is seldom adopted in lowland rice farming in Asia.
- 4.
We are interested in the knowledge transfers between farmers, rather than through formal teaching intervention delivered by professional instructors/extension workers.
- 5.
The target yield of 6.5 t/ha is too ambitious in view of the fact that the average yield in Asia is 4 t/ha.
- 6.
Northern region is the largest of the ten regions in Ghana and is a sparsely populated region.
- 7.
Using farmer recall we obtained information regarding when the farmer first adopted the technology, whether the farmer discontinued the use of technology after adoption, and whether the farmer re-adopted after disadoption. We used the Lowland Rice Development Project (LRDP) as the reference period for the classification.
- 8.
We used the multivariate probit to examine the possible technology combination for the five technologies. The result of this estimation is not provided here.
- 9.
It should be noted that the wage rate used for the imputation of family labor cost is not activity-specific, as wage rates are similar across different tasks.
- 10.
The multinomial logit regression model is also used to check the robustness of our estimation method and to compare the significance of key variables. The dependent variable in this case has four categories (pre−LRDP adopter, during−LRDP adopter, post−LRDP adopter and non-adopter). The estimation result, which is found to be consistent with the logit regression models, is provided in the Appendix Tables 5.9, 5.10, 5.11, 5.12, and 5.13.
- 11.
The application of chemical fertilizer requires some level of instruction in terms of the application timing and rate. The LRDP provided participating farmers with credit to purchase inputs such as seed and fertilizer. It may have contributed to the positive effect of the project community dummy on the adoption of the modern inputs. The dummy has a positive effect even after the project, implying that the learning through using such modern inputs has a long-lasting impact. Since the adoption of improved technologies might not be solely induced by LRDP, that some farmers rely on self-experimentation or learning from the experiences of other farmers, we try to interpret the regression results with caution.
- 12.
This is based on personal interviews with agricultural scientists of the International Rice Research Institute who are familiar with lowland rainfed rice farming in West Africa.
- 13.
This may be due to the over-estimation of the family labor cost, as the wage rate used for the imputation pertains to labor cost at peak seasons.
- 14.
MVs are also labor intensive because they require more crop care relative to traditional varieties.
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deGraft-Johnson, M., Suzuki, A., Sakurai, T., Otsuka, K. (2016). On the Possibility of Rice Green Revolution in Rainfed Areas in Northern Ghana: An Assessment of a Management Training Program. In: Otsuka, K., Larson, D. (eds) In Pursuit of an African Green Revolution. Natural Resource Management and Policy, vol 48. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55693-0_5
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