<p>Northern Ghana is characterized by food insecurity largely due to over reliance on rain-fed agriculture under low farm input conditions. The present study investigated the effect of factors influencing mineral fertilizer adoption and use intensity among smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. A total of 330 smallholder farmers selected through multi-stage sampling technique were interviewed. Adoption of fertilizer technology was determined by age, nativity, farm size, access to credit, and distance to agricultural office. The result of the truncated regression estimates indicated that income of household head, membership of farmer association, distance to agricultural office, access to input shop, income earning household that do not participate in agricultural development project and income earning male headed household were the significant factors influencing fertilizer use intensity. Distance to agricultural office was a key positive determinant of fertilizer adoption and use intensity. The study recommends improvement in road infrastructure and technical training of agricultural extension agents. Farmer based organization must be trained on regular basis to enhance their productive skills and technology uptake.</p>

Irrigation production is a means by which agricultural production can be increased to meet the growing food demands in the world. This study evaluated the effect of irrigation ecology on farm household technical, allocative, and economic efficiency of smallholder rice farmers. Cross-sectional data was obtained from 350 rice farmers across rain fed and irrigation ecologies. Stochastic frontier analyses are used to estimate the production efficiency and endogenous treatment effect regression model is used to estimate the impact of irrigation ecology on rice production efficiency. The impact of irrigation ecology on technical efficiency is about 0.05, which implies farmers producing under irrigation ecology are more technically efficient in their rice production than those in rain fed production. The impact of irrigation ecology on allocative efficiency is about 0.33, which shows that farmers participating in irrigation farming are more allocatively efficient in their rice production than those in rain fed production. The impact on economic efficiency is about 0.23, meaning that farmers participating in irrigation farming are more economically efficient in their rice production than those in rain fed production. Irrigation ecology has positive impact on production efficiency; hence farmers should be encouraged to produce more under irrigation for increased yield and profit.

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PurposeEven though many studies identify positive effects of contract farming (CF) on the livelihood of farmers, the use of CF as a tool to increase farm performance is unsettled debate. Information on CF is relatively not available in staple food chains. Theoretical considerations have shown that there are challenges in employing CF in staple food chains such as rice. With the increasing trend of rice CF in Ghana, it is very critical to establish its performance in rice production in Ghana. It is therefore imperative to analyse the impact of CF on the performance of smallholder rice farmers.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted where 350 rice farmers selected through a stratified sampling technique using structured questionnaires were interviewed. Descriptive and inferential statistics including stochastic frontier analyses and endogenous treatment effect regression were used to analyse the data.FindingsThe results from the endogenous treatment effect regression model show that CF improves rice farmers' technical, allocative and economic efficiencies by 21, 23 and 26%, respectively. Farm size and CF were identified as common factors influencing technical, allocative and economic efficiency measures of the farmers positively. It further identified age of farmer, educational level and household labour as factors influencing farmers' participation in CF positively.Research limitations/implicationsIt is recommended that CF is a good tool to enhance rice production efficiency, and hence, farmers should be encouraged to participate in CF as strategy to enhance the local rice production in Ghana.Social implicationsThe outcome of this study has the potential to influence rice production in the country. The country is a net importer of rice and just about 35% self-sufficient in rice production.Originality/valueThis study is the first to assess performance of CF in rice crop production in Ghana and also one of the few to use efficiency as a performance measure.