Production Efficiency Analysis Of Pineapple Farmers In The Akwapim-South District Of Ghana

ABSTRACT

Pineapple farmers in Ghana are not able to meet their potential yield. Organizations are making conscious efforts to help boost pineapple production by training farmers on topics  such as input use and farm management. It is necessary to ascertain if some gaps in production still exist that need to be addressed. The study sought to identify the influence of inputs on pineapple production in conjunction with the production of other crops. It also estimated the technical efficiency score of pineapple farmers and identified the determinants of technical inefficiency levels of the farmers using the one step stochastic output distance function approach. The constraints faced by pineapple farmers in the Akwapim-South District were identified and ranked using the Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance. A total of 135 respondents were selected using the multi-stage sampling technique. STATA version 14 was used for the data analysis. The analysis revealed that all the input variables (fertilizer, labour, planting material and intermediate cost) are significant and have a positive influence on the productivity of pineapple production. The shadow share of other crops is negative relative to the production of pineapple in the output mix. The mean technical efficiency score is estimated to be 86 percent. This implies that pineapple farmers in the Akwapim-South District have the potential to increase their output level further by 14 percent using the current technology available to them. The results indicate that extension visits, education and access to credit significantly and negatively affected technical inefficiency of pineapple farmers. The constraints facing pineapple farmers in the district are identified to be lack of credit, high production cost, high labour cost, marketing problems, lack of storage facilities, lack of extension services and incidence of pests and diseases ranked in order from the most pressing to the least pressing constraint. The farmers agreed to the ranking of the constraints. The study recommends based on the findings that government should make inputs accessible, available and affordable to farmers and policies implemented should help to improve credit facilities for farmers. Policy-makers should also intensify their efforts at providing labour-saving technologies and implementing policy measures that make agriculture more attractive to the youth. Finally, it recommends that there should be regular education of extension agents and extension service delivery should be structured properly to suit the needs of the farmers