Effect of Fertilizer Subsidy on Maize Productivity of Peasant Farmers in Northern Ghana

Benjamin Tetteh Anang, Naomi Alareba Kandawin and James Fearon

Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2023, vol. 43, issue 2

Abstract: This study examined how fertilizer subsidy improves maize productivity in northern Ghana. The study, which involved 486 farmers, used an endogenous treatment effect model to measure the effect of subsidy participation on agricultural productivity. The results indicated that fertilizer subsidy increased the productivity of maize by 230.4 kg/acre. Farmers’ age, sex, access to extension services, farm size and farm income were the determinants of subsidy participation, while productivity was influenced by age, sex, household size, soil fertility status and farm income. The study calls for adopting pro-poor measures such as input subsidization, especially for smallholder farmers, to boost fertilizer use and farm productivity in low-income countries. The government of Ghana should, therefore, expand the subsidy programme to reach farmers who did not receive the subsidy. The study further recommends that farmers’ access to extension services should be enhanced since agricultural extension workers are pivotal to the implementation and success of the fertilizer subsidy programme. Also, subsidized fertilizer should be supplied to farmers on time to ensure effective utilization of the subsidy to increase productivity.

Keywords: Production; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/348161/files/2022-2-03-Anang.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:bdbjaf:348161

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.348161

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Economics from Bangladesh Agricultural University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().