Extending the Learning Community: Rural Radio, Social Learning and Farm Productivity in Ghana

Abstract

This paper examines the potential role of indigenous knowledge sharing through rural FM radios in Ghanaian agriculture. To identify social learning effects, we examine crop productivity trends and their association with participation in radio programs, and compare the strength of these associations before and after emergence of rural radio. Our analysis shows stronger conditional correlations between participation intensity and non-cash crop yields, consistent with expectation that non-cash crop farmers will more likely adjust farming practice as a result of social learning. The results suggest potentials for agricultural research to impact farming effectively by taking advantage of rural FM stations.

Keywords: Rural radio, farm productivity, social learning, OLS regression model