Abstract
We explore crop yield volatility among rural and urban smallholder farmers using data from the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 6). Three separate ordinary least squares (OLS) models are estimated to determine the effect of access to credit, rural farming, and the use of technological inputs on crop yield. Our findings suggest that while rural farmers benefit from access to credit, urban farmers better utilize farming technologies to increase their yield than rural farmers. Our stochastic dominance analysis (SDA), which analyzes yield volatility, reveals that while rural farmers in the forest and coastal zones experience less volatility in their crop yield, crop yield is highly volatile among rural farmers in the savannah belt. To increase yield among smallholder farmers in Ghana, policy should focus on making credit available to farmers, especially those in the rural areas. Education on the use of technology in farming will help to increase yield and reduce volatility.
This chapter is extracted from a working paper by Peprah et al. (2016) published in the UNU-INRA working paper series (for more information follows the link http://collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:5923#viewAttachments).
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Notes
- 1.
This refers to farm households that have their farms located in the urban areas. Generally, urban farmers compared to rural farmers are relatively advantaged when it comes to access to credit and usage of technology for farming.
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Peprah, J.A., Afoakwah, C., Koomson, I. (2020). Analysis of Crop Yield Volatility Among Smallholder Farmers in Ghana. In: Atewamba, C., Yong Ngondjeb, D. (eds) Inclusive Green Growth. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44180-7_4
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