IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaae16/249277.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Comparative advantage and factors affecting maize production in Northern Ghana: A Policy Analysis Matrix Study

Author

Listed:
  • Scheiterle, Lilli
  • Birner, Regina

Abstract

Maize is one of the most important crops produced and consumed in Ghana, accounting for 58% of local cereal production. Increasing food prices worldwide and the gap between production and consumption of maize in recent years in Ghana present the country with growing import bills and higher prices for consumers. The purpose of this study was to analyze whether farmers in the northern sector of Ghana have a comparative advantage in the production of maize as import substitution. The effect impact of the fertilizer subsidy program on the yield itself and consequently on the private and social profitability has been tested. Fertilizer subsidy programs are one of the most popular policy programs in Africa. In the mid-90s many countries introduced them to increase crops yield. Household survey data of the cropping season 2010 were collected and complemented with data from different institutions. We applied the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM), to assess policy effects on production systems, and the Cobb-Douglas production function to identify factors affecting the output of each system. The results suggest that production systems with yields above the national average of 1.5 Mt/ha are profitable at private level and contribute to growth of the national economy. Farming systems producing below this threshold report negative social profits, implying that they do not use scarce resources efficiently in the production of maize and depend on government intervention. Policy implications are drown and, in conclusion, we consider essential to combine single policy tools and used in synergy to realize the full efficiency of each.

Suggested Citation

  • Scheiterle, Lilli & Birner, Regina, 2016. "Comparative advantage and factors affecting maize production in Northern Ghana: A Policy Analysis Matrix Study," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 249277, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaae16:249277
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.249277
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/249277/files/335.%20Maize%20PAM%20for%20Ghana.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.249277?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gershon Feder & Rinku Murgai & Jaime B. Quizon, 2004. "Sending Farmers Back to School: The Impact of Farmer Field Schools in Indonesia," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(1), pages 45-62.
    2. Chapoto, Antony & Ragasa, Catherine, 2013. "Moving in the right direction? Maize productivity and fertilizer use and use intensity in Ghana:," IFPRI discussion papers 1314, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Evenson, Robert E., 1994. "Efficiency in agricultural production: The case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 27-37, January.
    4. Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Robert E. Evenson, 1994. "Efficiency in agricultural production: the case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 27-37, January.
    5. Cudjoe, Godsway & Breisinger, Clemens & Diao, Xinshen, 2010. "Local impacts of a global crisis: Food price transmission, consumer welfare and poverty in Ghana," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 294-302, August.
    6. Banful, Afua Branoah, 2011. "Old Problems in the New Solutions? Politically Motivated Allocation of Program Benefits and the "New" Fertilizer Subsidies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1166-1176, July.
    7. Ragasa, Catherine & Dankyi, Awere & Acheampong, Patricia & Wiredu, Alexander Nimo & Chapoto, Antony & Asamoah, Marian & Tripp, Robert, 2013. "Patterns of adoption of improved maize technologies in Ghana:," GSSP working papers 36, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Brooks, Jonathan & Croppenstedt, Andre & Aggrey-Fynn, Emmanuel, 2007. "Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Ghana," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper Series 48523, World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chebil, A. & Frija, A. & Bennouna, B., 2018. "Impact of water shortage on the competitiveness of agricultural commodities in Tunisia," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275874, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Elzaki, Raga M. & Elrasheed, Mutasim.M.M. & Elmulthum, Nagat A., 2022. "Optimal crop combination under soaring oil and energy prices in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Asante, Bright O. & Temoso, Omphile & Addai, Kwabena N. & Villano, Renato A., 2019. "Evaluating productivity gaps in maize production across different agroecological zones in Ghana," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisca Henriquez, 2009. "Microcrédito y su Impacto: Un Acercamiento con Datos Chilenos," OVE Working Papers 0309, Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE).
    2. Pedro Cerdán-Infantes & Alessandro Maffioli & Diego Ubfal, 2008. "The Impact of Agricultural Extension Services: The Case of Grape Production in Argentina," OVE Working Papers 0508, Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE).
    3. Alessandro Maffioli & Diego Ubfal & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare & Pedro Cerdan-Infantes, 2013. "Improving technology adoption in agriculture through extension services: evidence from Uruguay," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 64-81, March.
    4. Boubacar Balde & Hajime Kobayashi & Makoto Nohmi & Akira Ishida & Mohamed Esham & Emmanuel Tolno, 2014. "An Analysis of Technical Efficiency of Mangrove Rice Production in the Guinean Coastal Area," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(8), pages 179-179, July.
    5. Coelli, Tim J., 1995. "Recent Developments In Frontier Modelling And Efficiency Measurement," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 39(3), pages 1-27, December.
    6. Medhin, Haileselassie A. & Köhlin, Gunnar, 2008. "Soil Conservation and Small-Scale Food Production in Highland Ethiopia: A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-22-efd, Resources for the Future.
    7. Jabbar, Mohammad A. & Islam, S.M.F. & Delgado, C. & Ehui, Simeon K. & Akanda, M.A.I. & Khan, M.I. & Kamruzzaman, M., 2005. "Policy and scale factors influencing efficiency in dairy and poultry production in Bangladesh," Research Reports 182868, International Livestock Research Institute.
    8. Iordanis Parikoglou & Grigorios Emvalomatis & Fiona Thorne, 2022. "Precision livestock agriculture and productive efficiency: The case of milk recording in Ireland," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(S1), pages 109-120, November.
    9. Bempomaa, Beatrice & Acquah, Henry de-Graft, 2014. "Technical Efficiency Analysis of Maize Production: Evidence from Ghana," APSTRACT: Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce, AGRIMBA, vol. 8(2-3), pages 1-7, September.
    10. Khor, Ling Yee & Zeller, Manfred, 2012. "Doubts on input quality: The effect of inaccurate fertilizer content on the estimation of production functions and technical efficiency," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126212, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Chen, Zhuo & Huffman, Wallace E. & Rozelle, Scott, 2009. "Farm technology and technical efficiency: Evidence from four regions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 153-161, June.
    12. Bhatta, Kiran Prasad & Ishida, Akira & Taniguchi, Kenji & Sharma, Raksha, 2006. "Technical Efficiency of Rural Nepalese Farmers as Affected by Farm Family Education and Extension Services," MPRA Paper 40955, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Torres Franco, Nicolás Arturo & Dávalos, Eleonora & Morales, Leonardo Fabio, 2021. "Heterogeneous Effects of Agricultural Technical Assistance in Colombia," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 459-481, November.
    14. Celero Treminio, Alfonso Jesus, 2013. "Socio economic Backyard Economy Study in Nicaragua during 2001 - 2005," Graduate Theses 142464, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, León (Unan-León), Researching Center for Applied Economics (RCAE).
    15. Dhungana, Basanta R. & Nuthall, Peter L. & Nartea, Gilbert V., 2000. "Explaining Economic Inefficiency Of Nepalese Rice Farms: An Empirical Investigation," 2000 Conference (44th), January 23-25, 2000, Sydney, Australia 123630, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    16. Tzouvelekas, Vangelis & Pantzios, Christos J. & Fotopoulos, Christos, 2001. "Economic Efficiency In Organic Farming: Evidence From Cotton Farms In Viotia, Greece," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-14, April.
    17. Julien, Jacques C. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Rada, Nicholas E., 2019. "Assessing farm performance by size in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 153-164.
    18. Hamsa, K.R. & Umesh, K.B., 2021. "Technical Efficiency in Finger Millet and Paddy Crop in Southern Karnataka: Application of Data Envelop Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Approach," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315862, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Fletschner, Diana K. & Zepeda, Lydia, 2002. "Efficiency Of Small Landholders In Eastern Paraguay," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 1-19, December.
    20. Okeke-Agulu, K. I. & Adepoju, S. O. & Nweze, N. J., 2011. "Technical Efficiency Of Snail Farming In Ngor Okpala Lga Of Imo State, Nigeria," Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 2(01).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crop Production/Industries; Production Economics;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaae16:249277. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaaeaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.