<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>

Production credit is essential in enhancing the technical efficiency and welfare of smallholder farmers in Africa. This paper evaluated the impact of credit on smallholders' technical efficiency using cross-sectional data from 233 maize-producing households in northern Ghana. Due to the exogenous assignment of credit and assumption of homogeneity in farm technologies, the propensity score matching analysis was used to compare the average difference in technical efficiency between farmers with credit and those without credit. The results show that credit impacted positively on farmers' technical efficiency. Provision of credit enhanced timely purchase and efficient allocation of factor inputs to produce the maximum output. Income and age also played an important role in reducing smallholders' technical inefficiency. The major recommendation of this study is that, the credit programme of agricultural interventions should target several resource poor farmers in order to enhance efficiency gains.Financial institutions must collaborate with agricultural and farmer development projects to facilitate credit delivery to smallholder farmers.

Innovation platforms are established to facilitate open communication and collaboration among various actors usually within a value chain to promote collective resource management. The concept of innovation platform as a strategy of entry point for operationalization, validation and dissemination of agricultural technology have received much attention in recent times among researchers in Ghana. However, very limited information exists on the factors that influence willingness of farmers' participation. The present study identified the factors influencing willingness to participate in innovation platform and also tested the level of agreement among the identified constraints associated with participation using the Probit model and Kendall's coefficient of concordance respectively. Data for the study was collected from a cross sectional primary observations of 250 smallholder rice farmers in northern Ghana. The study observes, inter alia, that age of household head, household size and household income significantly influenced willingness to participate on the platform. The Kendall's coefficient of concordance value indicated that there was 21 percent agreement between the rankings of the participation constraints faced by the sampled rice farmers. Income-earning and younger household heads must be targeted coupled with situation of the platforms close to smallholder farmers to encourage participation.

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Background:The rapid growth of mobile phones in Ghana has opened up the possibility of delivering timely and useful weather and market information to farmers at costs lower than traditional agricultural extension services. In this paper, we assess the usefulness, constraints, and factors likely to influence farmers' decisions to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information. Methods:We rely on primary data from 310 farmers in the Upper West Region, an understudied part of Ghana. We subject the data to three types of analysis. First, we model farmers' decision to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information by estimating a binary logit model. Second, we use descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing to analyse the level of usefulness of mobile phone-based weather and market information. We disaggregate the analysis by sex, income status, and age group. Finally, we use qualitative analysis to summarize the constraints associated with the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information. Results:We find that contact with agricultural extension agents and farmer-to-farmer extension services significantly influences farmers' decision to patronize mobile phone-based weather and market information. Regardless of sex, income status, and age group, farmers generally rate mobile phone-based weather and market information as very useful. We identify inexact information, complex text messages, information that are too costly to implement, and poor infrastructure as the constraints to the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information. Conclusion:In order to improve the utilization of mobile phone-based weather and market information, disseminators of mobile phone-based information such as Esoko should constantly update and provide client-specific information. Improvements in mobile phone networks and related services will enhance the utilization of mobile phonebased weather and market information.

Innovation platforms (IPs) are a way of organizing multistakeholder interactions, marshalling ideas, people and resources to address challenges and opportunities embedded in complex settings. The approach has its roots in theories of complexity, the concept of innovation systems and practices of participatory action research. IPs have been widely adopted across Africa and beyond in recent years as a "must have" tool in a range of "for development" modes of agricultural research. Our experiences with establishing and facilitating nine IPs in local settings in west and central Africa contribute to understanding factors that impact on their effectiveness. The nine IPs were variously focused on developing dairy, crop and/or meat value chains by strengthening mixed crop-livestock production systems or seed systems. Using case study methods, we identified variables that contribute to explaining the performance of these IPs in relation to six domains of change in the agricultural system and the sustainability of changes. Thematic analysis was guided by a conceptual framework which grouped variables into four categories (context, structure, conduct, and process) that interact to influence IP performance. Stronger market connections and value chains were generated through some of these IPs but the most prevalent changes overall were in farm productivity and technical knowledge of producers. The structures evolved in some IPs, akin to those of producer collectives, suggested they were filling an institutional gap locally. The effect of the IPs on deeper level institutions that influence agricultural systems and food security was modest, constraining prospects for the IPs to generate impact at scale. Impacts from the IPs on research and development organisations were uncommon but had transformative significance. Our conceptual framework did not offer optimal guidance to understanding how the many variables that contributed to performance of these IPs combined and sequenced, but the pattern of interactions was consistent with increased social capital being the prime mediator for change. Achieving greater prospects for transformational

The objective of this study was to document soybean production practices, estimate the level of profitability and identify constraints to soybean production in Saboba and Chereponi districts of the Northern Region of Ghana based on gender. Primary data from 140 farmers were subjected to profitability analysis and Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance. Soybean production was found to be unprofitable in Chereponi District for both male and female farmers but profitable for male farmers in Saboba District. Constraints to soybean production include lack of right over land, selling of produce on credit, among others. The level of profitability of soybean production can be improved by addressing constraints such as unfavourable land tenure arragements, unfavourable market conditions inter alia.

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