Access to Credit and Technical Efficiency of Vegetable Growers in Mfantsiman District of Ghana

25 Pages Posted: 14 Apr 2011

See all articles by James Atta Peprah

James Atta Peprah

University of Cape Coast - Department of Economics

Date Written: December 20, 2010

Abstract

The back bone of the Ghanaian economy is agriculture. The sector is the main source of staple food and vegetables. Even though most studies have investigated technical efficiency of some staple crops in Ghana, not much investigation has been carried out on technical efficiency of vegetables growers. The study estimates the technical efficiency of 100 vegetable (garden eggs, pepper and tomatoes) growers using the stochastic frontier function. Results indicate that mean technical efficiency is 0.748 with minimum and maximum values of 0.623and 0.897 respectively. The study revealed that 40.2% of farmers produce at efficiency level of 0.71-0.75. A good mix of inputs improves vegetable production but do not significantly determine yield. Access to credit by farmers is an important source of technical efficiency. Policy implications drawn from the results include a review of agricultural loan policies from the government banks, private banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to increase credit access to smallholder vegetable growers.

Keywords: Technical Efficiency, Credit, Vegetable growers, Mfantsiman district, Translog production function

JEL Classification: Q18

Suggested Citation

Peprah, James Atta, Access to Credit and Technical Efficiency of Vegetable Growers in Mfantsiman District of Ghana (December 20, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1805218 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1805218

James Atta Peprah (Contact Author)

University of Cape Coast - Department of Economics ( email )

Department of Economics
Faculty of Social Sciences
Cape Coast, PMB
Ghana

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