factors influencing the adoption of organic fertilizers in vegetable production in accra

131 Pages·2014·1.86 MB·English

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FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION OF ORGANIC
FERTILIZERS IN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN ACCRA

BY

ROBERT KOFI LAVISON

THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD
OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN AGRIBUSINESS

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND AGRIBUSINESS
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON

JULY, 2013
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DECLARATION
I, ROBERT KOFI LAVISON, the author of this thesis, titled; “FACTORS
INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION OF ORGANIC FERTILIZERS IN
VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN ACCRA”, do hereby declare that with the
exception of the relevant references duly cited, the entire research was carried out by
me in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, College of
Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon from August 2012
to July 2013. This thesis has never been presented either in whole or in part for any
degree in this University or elsewhere.

……………………………… …………………………
ROBERT KOFI LAVISON DATE
(Student)

This thesis has been submitted for examination with our approval as supervisors

…………………………………. …. .….………………………
DR. G. T-M. KWADZO D. P. K. AMEGASHIE
(Major Supervisor) (Co-Supervisor)

…………………………… ……..………………………
DATE DATE
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DEDICATION
I dedicate this work to my parents (Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Kofi Lavison), my sisters
(Aku, Caro, Abla and Adzoa) my brother (Koku). I also dedicate it especially to Yao
Lavison and his mother.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I thank the Almighty God for His wondrous mercies, guidance and protection. I thank
my able supervisors, Dr. G. T-M. Kwadzo and Mr. D. P. K. Amegashie of the
Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Ghana,
Legon, for their meticulous supervision, guidance and advice. I also thank all the
Senior Members of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness,
University of Ghana, Legon as well as my colleague students for all their constructive
criticisms and contributions. I would like to say a very big thank you to the
International Food Policy Research Institute for their research grant, without which I
could not have undertaken this study. I am also very grateful to the farmers in the
study area for providing the data for this study. I thank everyone who in any way
contributed towards making this study successful, I am forever in your debt.

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ABSTRACT
Continuous tillage of soils results in nutrient mining. It leaves the soils in very fragile
conditions and therefore nutrient augmentation through the application of fertilizers
has become imperative to maintain crop yields of to feed the ever growing population
of Ghana. The use of organic fertilizers has its pros and cons. This study sought to
determine the factors that influence the adoption of organic fertilizers, in vegetable
production in Accra. Vegetable growing areas were purposively selected and the
farmers were randomly selected. Both primary and secondary data collected were
analyzed using cost functions, descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regression,
partial farm budgeting techniques and Kendall‟s coefficient of concordance. The
software used for data entry and analysis were SPSS, STATA and Microsoft Office
Excel. It was found that currently, 96% of the respondents are users of organic
fertilizers, 45.3% can be classified as adopters. The significant factors influencing the
adoption of organic fertilizers include gender, type of farmer, consumer preference for
organically grown vegetables, income from using organic fertilizers, income from
using inorganic fertilizers and the type of market that a farmer produces for. Income
from using inorganic fertilizers, consumer preference and type of market influence the
adoption of organic fertilizers negatively. Income from using organic fertilizers, type
of farmer and gender influence the adoption of organic fertilizers positively. Farmers
using organic fertilizers incur a high transaction costs. The most pressing constraint
associated with the use of organic fertilizers was bulkiness and there was agreement
among farmers in the ranking of constraints. It is recommended that the use of organic
fertilizers should be properly supervised by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to ensure that excessive levels are not applied, as this could result in
environmental pollution. Vegetable production in the city should be promoted by city
authorities and other stakeholders as because it is a profitable venture and a viable
source of livelihood. Suitable areas of the city of Accra such as marine drive, La
Korle-bu, GBC and Dzorwulu should be reserved mainly for vegetable cultivation and
other forms of agriculture by city authorities because increasing development could
lead to a reduction in land area available for urban agriculture. The Government
should introduce a fertilizer subsidy policy that is geared towards the production of
vegetables and also one that consists mainly of organic fertilizers. Scientists should
devise ways of reducing the bulky nature of organic fertilizers. Entrepreneurs and
investors should be given incentives such as tax rebates and credit to invest in setting
up more composting sites and organic fertilizer manufacturing plants to satisfy the
demand for the fertilizers.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................... i
DEDICATION ......................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF ACRONYMS .......................................................................................................... x

CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................ 4
1.3 Objectives of the Study .................................................................................................... 7
1.4 Relevance of the Study .................................................................................................... 8
1.5 Organization of the Study ................................................................................................ 8

CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................... 10
LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 10
2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Urban Vegetable Production ......................................................................................... 10
2.3 Organic Fertilizer Use .................................................................................................... 12
2.4 Nutrients in Organic Fertilizers in Ghana and their Functions ................................. 15
2.5 Fertilizer Policy in Ghana .............................................................................................. 17
2.6 Sources of Organic Fertilizers ....................................................................................... 18
2.7 Adoption of Organic Fertilizers .................................................................................... 19
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2.8 Factors Influencing the Adoption of Organic Fertilizer Technology ...................... 21
2.8.1 Empirical Evidence of the use of the Multinomial Logit Model in Choice
Studies ...................................................................................................................... 25
2.9 Transaction Costs in Agriculture .................................................................................. 27
2.10 Net Gain ......................................................................................................................... 29
2.11 Constraints Associated with organic fertilizers ........................................................ 31
2.12 Summary of Literature Review .................................................................................. 31

CHAPTER THREE .............................................................................................................. 34
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................ 34
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 34
3.2 Conceptual Framework of the Study ............................................................................ 34
3.3 Methods of Analyses ...................................................................................................... 38
3.3.1 Identifying the Sources of Organic Fertilizers ................................................ 38
3.3.2 Determining the Rate of Organic Fertilizer Adoption .................................... 39
3.3.3 Determining the Factors that Influence Organic Fertilizer Adoption ............. 43
3.3.3.1 Justification of Empirical Variables (Xs) ................................................. 46
3.3.3.2 Detailed Description of Empirical Variables (Xs) ................................... 48
3.3.3.3 A priori expectation .................................................................................. 51
3.3.3.4 Testing of Hypotheses .............................................................................. 51
3.3.3.5 Hypotheses Validation .............................................................................. 52
3.3.4 Estimating the Transaction Costs Associated with Organic Fertilizers .......... 52
3.3.5 Estimating the Net Gain from the Use of Organic Fertilizers ......................... 53
3.3.5.1 Estimation of Components of the Partial Budget ..................................... 54
3.3.5.2 Procedure for Preparing the Partial Budget .............................................. 56
3.3.6 Constraints Associated with Organic Fertilizers ............................................. 57
3.4 Data Collection ............................................................................................................... 59
3.4.1 Types and Sources of Data .............................................................................. 59
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3.4.2 Sample Size and Sampling Technique ............................................................ 60
3.4.3 Survey Instrument ........................................................................................... 61

CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................. 64
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................................................... 64
4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 64
4.2 The Socio-economic Characteristics of the Respondents ......................................... 64
4.4 Rate of Adoption of Organic Fertilizer ........................................................................ 73
4.5 Factors Influencing the Adoption of Organic Fertilizers in Vegetable Production
in Accra (AMA) .................................................................................................................... 75
4.5.1 The Marginal Effects of Factors Influencing the of Adoption of Organic
Fertilizers .................................................................................................................. 76
4.6 Transaction costs associated with organic fertilizers ................................................. 79
4.7 Net Gains from using organic fertilizers ..................................................................... 81
4.7.1 Partial Budget .................................................................................................. 81
4.8 Ranking of Constraints Associated with Organic Fertilizer Use .............................. 82

CHAPTER FIVE ................................................................................................................... 85
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................... 85
5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 85
5.2 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 85
5.3 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 87
5.4 Recommendations........................................................................................................... 89
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 91
APPENDIX 1: SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................. 99
APPENDIX 2:DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF EXPLANATORY VARIABLES
WITH RESPECT TO THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE .............................................. 109
APPENDIX 3: SPREADSHEET OF REVENUE AND COST ESTIMATIONS ..... 113

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Fertilizer Subsidy Elements on 50 kg bag of Inorganic Fertilizer in 2008....... 17
Table 3.1 The Format for the Partial Budget………………………….…………..……. 57
Table 4.1 Summary of Socio-economic Characteristics…………….……………..…… 66
Table 4.2 Number of Times a Vegetable is Cultivated in a year…….…..……...…........ 70
Table 4.3 Sources of Manure………………………………………….…….………….. 71
Table 4.4 Sources of Compost ……………………………………………...…………. 72
Table 4.5 Most Reliable Source of Organic Fertilizer Supply………………….……… 72
Table 4.6 Summary of Rate of Adoption of Organic Fertilizers……………..……........ 74
Table 4.7 The Marginal Effects of Factors Influencing the Adoption of Organic
Fertilizers…………………………………………………………..……….. 77

Table 4.8 Comparing the Transaction Costs Incurred by Fertilizer Users…….….…..... 80
Table 4.9 Partial Budget of Choosing Organic Fertilizers Over Inorganic
Fertilizers…………………………………………………….……….……. 81

Table 4.10 Ranked Constraints…………………………………….……………...……. 83

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 Conceptual Framework for the Study………………………………..…. 36
Figure 3.2 Innovation Adoption Cycle………………………………………..…… 40
Figure 3.3 A Map showing open spaces and (farming) activities on
them in Accra......................................................................................... 63

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