IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v82y2019icp220-227.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Farming systems and productivity gaps: Opportunities for improving smallholder performance in the Forest-Savannah transition zone of Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Villano, Renato
  • Asante, Bright Owusu
  • Bravo-Ureta, Boris

Abstract

This paper examines the productivity of diversified farming systems in the Forest-Savannah Transition zone of Ghana. Cross sectional data from 568 smallholder farmers and a metafrontier framework are used to investigate the opportunities for improving the performance of three types of farming systems: crop; livestock; and integrated crop-livestock. The results show that increasing farmers’ access to labour and capital improves the productivity of each of the three farming systems, whereas access to land increases the productivity of the livestock and integrated crop-livestock farming systems. The latter system is more productive because of its greater diversification. There are opportunities for improving productivity through enhancing farmers’ access to market information and promoting output diversification. Furthermore, policies designed to encourage the adoption of integrated crop-livestock farming systems as a way to enhance productivity, to spread production and market risk, and to promote more stable farm incomes are warranted.

Suggested Citation

  • Villano, Renato & Asante, Bright Owusu & Bravo-Ureta, Boris, 2019. "Farming systems and productivity gaps: Opportunities for improving smallholder performance in the Forest-Savannah transition zone of Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 220-227.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:220-227
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.12.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837718307075
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.12.010?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Léopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2000. "Statistical Inference in Nonparametric Frontier Models: The State of the Art," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 49-78, January.
    2. Daniel Solís & Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Ricardo E. Quiroga, 2009. "Technical Efficiency among Peasant Farmers Participating in Natural Resource Management Programmes in Central America," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 202-219, February.
    3. Whitfield, Stephen & Dixon, Jami L. & Mulenga, Brian P. & Ngoma, Hambulo, 2015. "Conceptualising farming systems for agricultural development research: Cases from Eastern and Southern Africa," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 54-62.
    4. Abdulai, Awudu & Huffman, Wallace, 2000. "Structural Adjustment and Economic Efficiency of Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(3), pages 503-520, April.
    5. Christopher O’Donnell & D. Rao & George Battese, 2008. "Metafrontier frameworks for the study of firm-level efficiencies and technology ratios," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 231-255, March.
    6. Mittal, Surabhi & Tripathi, Gaurav, 2009. "Role of Mobile Phone Technology in Improving Small Farm Productivity," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 22(Conferenc).
    7. Kolawole Ogundari, 2013. "Crop diversification and technical efficiency in food crop production," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(3), pages 267-287, February.
    8. Govereh, Jones & Jayne, T. S., 2003. "Cash cropping and food crop productivity: synergies or trade-offs?," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 39-50, January.
    9. Asante, Bright Owusu & Villano, Renato A. & Battese, George E., 2014. "The effect of the adoption of yam minisett technology on the technical efficiency of yam farmers in the forest-savanna transition zone of Ghana," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 1-16, April.
    10. Kelvin Balcombe & Iain Fraser & Laure Latruffe & Mizanur Rahman & Laurence Smith, 2008. "An application of the DEA double bootstrap to examine sources of efficiency in Bangladesh rice farming," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(15), pages 1919-1925.
    11. Nan Jiang & Basil Sharp, 2015. "Technical efficiency and technological gap of New Zealand dairy farms: a stochastic meta-frontier model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 39-49, August.
    12. Tim Coelli & Sanzidur Rahman & Colin Thirtle, 2002. "Technical, Allocative, Cost and Scale Efficiencies in Bangladesh Rice Cultivation: A Non‐parametric Approach," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 607-626, November.
    13. Brooks, Jonathan & Croppenstedt, Andre & Aggrey-Fynn, Emmanuel, 2007. "Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Ghana," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper Series 48523, World Bank.
    14. Battese, George E., 1992. "Frontier production functions and technical efficiency: a survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 7(3-4), pages 185-208, October.
    15. Ramírez-Rodrigues, Melissa A. & Alderman, Phillip D. & Stefanova, Lydia & Cossani, C. Mariano & Flores, Dagoberto & Asseng, Senthold, 2016. "The value of seasonal forecasts for irrigated, supplementary irrigated, and rainfed wheat cropping systems in northwest Mexico," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 76-86.
    16. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    17. Harrison, Matthew T. & Cullen, Brendan R. & Rawnsley, Richard P., 2016. "Modelling the sensitivity of agricultural systems to climate change and extreme climatic events," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 135-148.
    18. Asekenye, Cresenia & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Deom, Mike & Kidula, Nelson & Okello, David Kalule & Okoko, Nasambu & Puppala, Naveen, 2016. "Productivity gaps among groundnut farmers in Kenya and Uganda: A stochastic production frontier analysis," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16.
    19. Jean‐Paul Chavas & Salvatore Di Falco, 2012. "On the Role of Risk Versus Economies of Scope in Farm Diversification With an Application to Ethiopian Farms," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 25-55, February.
    20. Guvele, C. A., 2001. "Gains from crop diversification in the Sudan Gezira scheme," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 319-333, October.
    21. Ollenburger, Mary H. & Descheemaeker, Katrien & Crane, Todd A. & Sanogo, Ousmane M. & Giller, Ken E., 2016. "Waking the Sleeping Giant: Agricultural intensification, extensification or stagnation in Mali's Guinea Savannah," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 58-70.
    22. Ogundari, Kolawole, 2014. "The Paradigm of Agricultural Efficiency and its Implication on Food Security in Africa: What Does Meta-analysis Reveal?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 690-702.
    23. Víctor Moreira & Boris Bravo-Ureta, 2010. "Technical efficiency and metatechnology ratios for dairy farms in three southern cone countries: a stochastic meta-frontier model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 33-45, February.
    24. Khanal, Uttam & Wilson, Clevo & Shankar, Sriram & Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Lee, Boon, 2018. "Farm performance analysis: Technical efficiencies and technology gaps of Nepalese farmers in different agro-ecological regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 645-653.
    25. Hossein Mehrabi Boshrabadi & Renato Villano & Euan Fleming, 2008. "Technical efficiency and environmental‐technological gaps in wheat production in Kerman province of Iran," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 67-76, January.
    26. Boris E. Bravo-Ureta, 2014. "Stochastic frontiers, productivity effects and development projects," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 51-58.
    27. Santillán-Fernández, A. & Santoyo-Cortés, V.H. & García-Chávez, L.R. & Covarrubias-Gutiérrez, I. & Merino, A., 2016. "Influence of drought and irrigation on sugarcane yields in different agroecoregions in Mexico," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 126-135.
    28. Temoso, Omphile & Villano, Renato & Hadley, David, 2016. "Evaluating the productivity gap between commercial and traditional beef production systems in Botswana," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 30-39.
    29. George Battese & D. Rao & Christopher O'Donnell, 2004. "A Metafrontier Production Function for Estimation of Technical Efficiencies and Technology Gaps for Firms Operating Under Different Technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 91-103, January.
    30. Villano, Renato & Fleming, Euan & Fleming, Pauline, 2010. "Evidence of farm-level synergies in mixed-farming systems in the Australian Wheat-Sheep Zone," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 146-152, March.
    31. Kwansoo Kim & Jean-Paul Chavas & Bradford Barham & Jeremy Foltz, 2012. "Specialization, diversification, and productivity: a panel data analysis of rice farms in Korea," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 43(6), pages 687-700, November.
    32. Schut, Marc & van Asten, Piet & Okafor, Chris & Hicintuka, Cyrille & Mapatano, Sylvain & Nabahungu, Nsharwasi Léon & Kagabo, Desire & Muchunguzi, Perez & Njukwe, Emmanuel & Dontsop-Nguezet, Paul M. & , 2016. "Sustainable intensification of agricultural systems in the Central African Highlands: The need for institutional innovation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 165-176.
    33. Renato Villano & Boris Bravo-Ureta & Daniel Solís & Euan Fleming, 2015. "Modern Rice Technologies and Productivity in the Philippines: Disentangling Technology from Managerial Gaps," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 129-154, February.
    34. O'Brien, D. & Bohan, A. & McHugh, N. & Shalloo, L., 2016. "A life cycle assessment of the effect of intensification on the environmental impacts and resource use of grass-based sheep farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 95-104.
    35. Joachim Nyemeck BINAM & Jim GOCKOWSKI & Guy Blaise NKAMLEU, 2008. "Technical Efficiency And Productivity Potential Of Cocoa Farmers In West African Countries," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 46(3), pages 242-263, September.
    36. Quiroga, Sonia & Suárez, Cristina & Fernández-Haddad, Zaira & Philippidis, George, 2017. "Levelling the playing field for European Union agriculture: Does the Common Agricultural Policy impact homogeneously on farm productivity and efficiency?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 179-188.
    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. Carlucci, Fabio & Corcione, Carlo & Mazzocchi, Paolo & Trincone, Barbara, 2021. "The role of logistics in promoting Italian agribusiness: The Belt and Road Initiative case study," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    2. Asante, Bright Owusu & Koomson, Isaac & Villano, Renato & Wiredu, Alexander Nimo, 2021. "Gender and Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Integrated Crop-Livestock Management Practices (ICLMPs) Among Men and Women Smallholder Farmers in Ghana," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315093, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    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).
    4. Abdul-Rahaman, Awal & Issahaku, Gazali & Zereyesus, Yacob A., 2021. "Improved rice variety adoption and farm production efficiency: Accounting for unobservable selection bias and technology gaps among smallholder farmers in Ghana," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Jacob Asravor & Alexander N. Wiredu & Khalid Siddig & Edward E. Onumah, 2019. "Evaluating the Environmental-Technology Gaps of Rice Farms in Distinct Agro-Ecological Zones of Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Neubauer, Florian & Songsermsawas, Tisorn & Kámiche-Zegarra, Joanna & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2022. "Technical efficiency and technological gaps correcting for selectivity bias: Insights from a value chain project in Nepal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    7. Ilija Djekic & Laura Batlle-Bayer & Alba Bala & Pere Fullana-i-Palmer & Anet Režek Jambrak, 2021. "Role of the Food Supply Chain Stakeholders in Achieving UN SDGs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-16, August.

    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. 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).
    2. Khanal, Uttam & Wilson, Clevo & Shankar, Sriram & Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Lee, Boon, 2018. "Farm performance analysis: Technical efficiencies and technology gaps of Nepalese farmers in different agro-ecological regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 645-653.
    3. Jacob Asravor & Alexander N. Wiredu & Khalid Siddig & Edward E. Onumah, 2019. "Evaluating the Environmental-Technology Gaps of Rice Farms in Distinct Agro-Ecological Zones of Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Higgins, Daniel & Arslan, Aslihan, 2020. "Irrigation infrastructure and farm productivity in the Philippines: A stochastic Meta-Frontier analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    5. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Jara-Rojas, Roberto & Lachaud, Michee A. & Moreira L., Victor H. & Scheierling, Susanne M., 2015. "Water and Farm Efficiency: Insights from the Frontier Literature," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 206076, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Owusu, Eric S. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2022. "Reap when you sow? The productivity impacts of early sowing in Malawi," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    7. Nguyen, Huy, 2014. "Crop diversification, economic performance and household’s behaviours Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 59168, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Oct 2014.
    8. Asfaw, Solomon & Cattaneo, Andrea & Pallante, Giacomo & Palma, Alessandro, 2017. "Improving the efficiency targeting of Malawi's farm input subsidy programme: Big pain, small gain?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 104-118.
    9. Tai-Hsin Huang & Yi-Chun Lin & Kuo-Jui Huang & Yu-Wei Liao, 2022. "Comparing Cost Efficiency Between Financial and Non-financial Holding Banks and Insurers in Taiwan Under the Framework of Copula Methods and Metafrontier," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 29(4), pages 735-766, December.
    10. Farnaz Pourzand & Mohammad Bakhshoodeh, 2014. "Technical effici ency and agricultural sustainability–technology gap of maize producers in Fars province of Iran," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 671-688, June.
    11. Gabriel A. Sampaio Morais & Felipe F. Silva & Carlos Otávio de Freitas & Marcelo José Braga, 2021. "Irrigation, Technical Efficiency, and Farm Size: The Case of Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    12. Latruffe, Laure & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Moreira, Victor H. & Desjeux, Yann & Dupraz, Pierre, 2012. "Productivity and Subsidies in the European Union: An Analysis for Dairy Farms Using Input Distance Frontiers," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126846, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Nguyen, Huy Quynh, 2017. "Analyzing the economies of crop diversification in rural Vietnam using an input distance function," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 148-156.
    14. Nan Jiang & Basil Sharp, 2015. "Technical efficiency and technological gap of New Zealand dairy farms: a stochastic meta-frontier model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 39-49, August.
    15. Asante, Bright Owusu & Koomson, Isaac & Villano, Renato & Wiredu, Alexander Nimo, 2021. "Gender and Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Integrated Crop-Livestock Management Practices (ICLMPs) Among Men and Women Smallholder Farmers in Ghana," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315093, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Mercedes Beltrán-Esteve & José Gómez-Limón & Andrés Picazo-Tadeo & Ernest Reig-Martínez, 2014. "A metafrontier directional distance function approach to assessing eco-efficiency," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 69-83, February.
    17. Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & Antonio José Orozco-Gallo, 2017. "Technical efficiency for Colombian small crop and livestock farmers: A stochastic metafrontier approach for different production systems," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 1-16, February.
    18. Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & Antonio José Orozco-Gallo, 2015. "Eficiencia técnica de los hogares con producción agropecuaria en Colombia," Documentos de trabajo sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 227, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    19. Gong, Tianchen (Charles) & Battese, George E. & Villano, Renato A., 2019. "Family farms plus cooperatives in China: Technical efficiency in crop production," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Gatti, Nicolas & Lema, Daniel & Brescia, Victor, 2015. "A Meta-Frontier Approach to Measuring Technical Efficiency and Technology Gaps in Beef Cattle Production in Argentina," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211647, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stochastic production frontiers; Metafrontier; Farming systems; Productivity gaps; Ghana;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

    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:eee:lauspo:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:220-227. 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: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    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.