Browsing by Author "Kwawu, J.D."
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Item Assessment of the determinants that influence the adoption of sustainable soil and water conservation practices in Techiman Municipality of Ghana(International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 2019) Darkwah, K.A.; Kwawu, J.D.; Agyire-Tettey, F.; Sarpong, D.B.This paper assesses the relationship between farmer characteristics and the degree to which nine soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs) are adopted by 300 maize farmers in Techiman Municipality, Ghana. Farmers were surveyed for their adoption of nine SWCPs, and 24 other characteristics including demographics, socio-economic factors, risk factors and costs of production. Sustainable soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs) in sub-Saharan Africa such as Ghana are important because they have positive effects on yield, increase sustainability of farming, stop degradation and reduce soil erosion. The adoption of sustainable soil and water conservation practices in the agricultural industry of Ghana has been variable. This study aims to explain differences in farmer adoption of SWCPs, by assessing factors that vary with the number of different SWCPs used by farmers. Hence, the Poisson model was used. The results show that farmer's household size, farm size, access to credit services and formal training of maize farmer have a positive significant association with the number of soil and water conservation practices adopted by maize farmers while distance to nearest output market, distance to input center, access to extension services, and risk of pest and diseases have a negative significant association with the number of soil and water conservation practices adopted by maize farmers at 5% significance level. The study concludes that any further research in Techiman Municipality on soil and water conservation practices should acknowledge the mixture of personal and demographic, institutional, socio-economic and risk factors. This suggests that agricultural policies formulated by the government should be aimed at supporting maize farmers to have access to extension service contact for frequent disseminating of agricultural technology information which is likely to increase the rate of adoption of soil and water conservation practices. © 2019 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation and China Water and Power PressItem Technology adoption intensity and technical efficiency of maize farmers in the Techiman municipality of Ghana(Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Kwawu, J.D.; Sarpong, D.B.; Agyire-Tettey, F.This paper analyses the determinants of the intensity of adoption of improved maize technology, technical efficiency and constraints farmers faced in the Techiman Municipality of Ghana. To achieve the objectives, cross-sectional data were collected from 407 maize farmers. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and econometric models such as the Poisson model and the stochastic frontier model. The study found a positive and significant influence of extension contact, formal training, land ownership, hired labour, farm size and mobile phone ownership on the intensity of adoption of improved technology. The stochastic frontier model estimates also found maize farmers to be on, average, 70% technically efficient with increasing returns to scale of 1.26. The intensity of adoption, age, land ownership, livestock ownership and perception of soil fertility by the farmers with household size were found to statistically contribute to the technical efficiency of farmers. The study concludes that intensity of adoption of improved maize technology package elements increases productivity, and, therefore, recommends that subsidy packages and credit should be made available to farmers through government and other financial institutions to increase adoption intensity. This study addresses the gap in the use of improved and multiple maize technology in Ghana