Socio-Economic Determinants of Intensity of Adoption of Cocoa Research Innovations in Ghana

Abstract

A number of technologies expected to increase cocoa yield per hectare have been introduced by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) but cocoa farmers are reluctant to adopt and intensify the use of these technologies. This study therefore sought to identify the factors which influence intensity of adoption of cocoa research innovations in Ghana. Six hundred (600) cocoa farmers selected through multistage sampling technique were used for the study. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. The double hurdle model was used to estimate the determinants of intensity of adoption and factors which were found to be statistically significant were age of the farmer, household size, farm size, education, hired labour, own labour, non-hired labour, membership of association and frequency of extension advice. It is therefore recommended that government should improve upon facilities in the rural areas to reduce the migration of the youth to the urban centres. Land acquisition should be eased to enable farmers increase the sizes of their farms and encourage new farmers also enter the cocoa industry. Also farmers should be given training through non-formal education and encouraged to join producer associations. Finally, COCOBOD should continue to provide extension service.

Keywords: Socio-economic, intensity, adoption, cocoa research, innovation