SOCIAL NETWORKS AND RURAL AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN SELECTED RURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF GHANA

ABSTRACT The study set out to examine the utilisation of social networks among rural farmers in four rural communities in the Central Region of Ghana. Data were collected from 327 alters who were constituted via the egocentric approach based on eight(8) accidentally selected egos, and analysed with tools from SPSS (Version 21). Data were presented using frequency tables and percentages. The Kruskal Wallis and the median tests were used to test the differences in the communities with respect to their network size and density. The relationships between the variables of interest were tested using the Chi-square test of independence. The study found that resources that flow across networks are important for rural agricultural development. Besides the resources that flow across networks, the social support function of networks, exchange of tangible and intangible agricultural resources also favour rural agriculture. It also became evident that chiefs, unit committee chairpersons, pastors, assembly persons, unit committee members and community elders played important roles in mobilising groups and networks. It was also found that observational learning is key in the adoption of technologies among rural farmers as they learn about new technology by observing their neighbours and other people in their network. It is recommended that, since farmers observe other farms and farmers in order to access information on new technologies, policies that aim at the introduction of new agricultural technology should consider model farms to enable farmers to observe how the technology works. Also, policy makers should pay more attention to the social support functions of networks since they favour agricultural development. Last, key persons in the mobilisation of networks should be part of policies that aim at developing rural agriculture.