Factors affecting adoption of alternative pineapple production systems in Ghana
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Date
2015-07
Authors
Badu-Gyan, Farida
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The main objective of this research was to examine farmers’ decision and choice of production systems for pineapple production in order to determine the effect of factors within the social, physical and institutional environment that the farmers in the Central Region of Ghana operate under. An integrated value chain (VC)–New Institutional Economics (NIE)–Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) framework (‘VC-NIE-SCP framework’) was used to identify and describe the characteristics and requirements of the different production systems in the pineapple production sector. The integrated VC-NIE-SCP framework allows for comprehensive analysis of the behaviour and performance of small-scale pineapple farmers in their social, physical and institutional environment. A multinomial logit model was used to determine the factors that will influence farmers’ decision and choice of pineapple production system in Ghana in order to assess the relationship between social, physical and institutional factors and farmers choice behaviour. The results show that there are three pineapple production systems in the Central Region, namely certified organic, non-certified organic and conventional pineapple production systems. The majority of the farmers are conventional pineapple producers. Participation by women in the pineapple sector is very low. All the categories of farmers are credit-constrained. Most of the certified organic farmers have either written or oral contracts with pineapple exporters or processors. Most of the farmers in all the three categories have basic education. The empirical results reveal that farmers’ choice of certified organic pineapple production is positively influenced by the farmers’ concern for the environment, organic premium perception, and contracts with certified organic pineapple exporters or processors, training on organic production, access to support services from governmental or non-governmental organisations, and availability and access to the certified organic market. Within the institutional environment, farmers’ knowledge on institutional factors, such as level of knowledge on land tenure systems, level of knowledge on phytosanitary regulations of importing countries, and level of knowledge about the traditional norms, taboos and beliefs in the farming communities, all have positive influence on farmers’ choice of certified organic pineapple production system. Social capital index has a positive influence on farmers’ choice of certified organic pineapple production. However, personal factors, such as senior high school, training college and undergraduate university levels of education, household size, off-farm activity and wealth of farmers, have negative influence on farmers’ choice of certified organic pineapple production. Farmers’ choice of certified organic pineapple production is negatively influenced by access to government-subsidised inputs. Among the physical environment factors, farm size and distance from farm to organic market negatively influence farmers’ choice of certified organic pineapple production, compared with conventional production methods. Owned land tenure system has a negative influence on farmers’ choice of certified organic pineapple production, compared to conventional production methods. The main conclusion from this research is that, for the growth and development of the certified organic pineapple production sector in Ghana, policy makers should take the above factors into consideration when designing policy documents and sustainability strategies for the development of the pineapple sector.
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Keywords
Ghana, Pineapple, Production system, Certified organic, Multinomial logit, Social environment, Physical environment, Institutional environment, Dissertation (M.Sc.Agric. (Agricultural Economics))--University of the Free State, 2015, Pineapple industry -- Ghana