Adoption of Modern Agricultural Production Technologies by Farm Households in Ghana: What Factors Influence their Decisions?

Abstract

Low adoption of modern agricultural production technologies amongst farmers in Ghana has been identified as one of the main reasons for the low agricultural productivity in the country. This paper examines the factors that influence farm households’ modern agricultural production technology adoption decisions in Ghana. Household questionnaires were administered to 300 farmers the Bawku West District of Ghana; and the logit model was estimated to ascertain the factors. The results showed that farm size, expected benefits from technology adoption, access to credit and extension services are the factors that significantly influence technology adoption decisions of farm households in the study area. It is concluded that farm households’ agricultural technology adoption decisions depends on their socio-economic circumstances and institutional effectiveness. We recommend that policies should be formulated to take advantage of the factors that positively influence farmers’ adoption of modern agricultural production technologies and to mitigate the negative ones.

Key words: Agriculture, Farmers, Household, Logit Model, Ghana, Technology Adoption