PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE IN COCOA PRODUCTION IN GHANA

ABSTRACT The main objective of the research was to examine the prospects and challenges of developing and implementing precision agriculture (PA) in cocoa production in Ghana. Correlational research design was used to collect data using a multistage sampling technique from major stakeholders including scientists (n=12), cocoa extension agents (CEAs) (n=63) and cocoa farmers (n=416) in the cocoa industry in Ghana. Content-validated questionnaires and structured interview schedules were used for data collection. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, one way ANOVA, post-hoc multiple comparison, correlation coefficients, and logistic regression. The results of the study revealed that the majority of cocoa farmers (83%) were willing to adopt precision agricultural technologies (PATs) but their level of awareness of PATs was rather low. The level of awareness of scientists and CEAs were high and fair respectively, however, they both had only a fair knowledge in PA. Five major challenges expected to pose serious challenges to the development and implementation of future PATs were (a) farmer demographic characteristics, (b) economic, (c) educational, (d) environmental, and (e) technical, with farmers’ demographic characteristics expected to be the greatest. Even though correlation analysis showed that 12 out of 28 independent variables had significant relationships with cocoa farmers’ willingness to adopt PATs, the regression analysis revealed only five to be best predictors. The overall best predictor was row planting which together with (a) educational level of cocoa farmers, (b) credit from financial institutions, (c) relative advantage of PATs, and the (d) perceived ease of use of PATs contributed between 38% to 60% of the variance in cocoa farmers’ willingness to adopt PATs. The study concluded that even though PA has high prospects from cocoa farmers’ perspectives, scientists and CEAs believe that the prospects are relatively low due to the enormous challenges that need to be overcome before PATs become a reality in Ghana. The study recommended, among others, the establishment of a PA unit in Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) to champion research into PATs and practices, establishment of resilient research-extension-farmer linkage system for requisite awareness creation and training of stakeholders, and mainstreaming PA topics into institutions of higher learning in Ghana.