The nexuses between technology adoption and socioeconomic changes among farmers in Ghana

摘要

Agricultural technology adoption is critical to increasing productivity, profitability, and welfare of smallholder farmers. A high number of maize and cowpea production technologies have been developed, validated, and introduced to farmers. However, the adoption of these technologies continues to remain low and uneven and what really influences farmers' decisions to adopt these technologies at the farm level is unclear. This study analysed the key drivers of the adoption of maize and cowpea technologies using recent comprehensive data collected through a household survey of 463 farmers. The study applied both the probit and logit models to estimate the factors influencing adoption in the study area. The study found a high rate of adoption among farmers with heterogeneous effects on the number of technologies adopted. Regional location of the farmer, age, FRO membership, distance to farm, access to credit, access to extension services and gender are the statistically significant factors that influence technology adoption in northern Ghana. Institutional strengthening such as FBOs and extension service provision as well as private sector participation that makes finance accessible to smallholder farmers has a great potential of catalysing the adoption of improved technologies for improving the welfare of farmers.