Food Produce Marketing and Agricultural Growth in three Selected Districts in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana

Abstract

Agricultural growth is important for poverty reduction in developing countries, especially those that have agrarian economies like Ghana. The purpose of the study was to investigate the contribution of food produce marketing to agricultural growth in three selected districts in Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The study analysed the efficiency of the food produce marketing system from two perspectives–spatial market integration and relationship quality between farmers and traders–to find how the level of market efficiency provides an incentive for smallholder food crop farmers’ decision to produce more. The selected study districts were Asutifi South District, Tano North District and Techiman Municipality. The study applied the mixed methods approach and used both quantitative and qualitative research methods as well as relying on the descriptive and cross-sectional survey approaches. The sample size of the study was 348 comprising 269 farmers and 79 traders. The findings showed that both plantain and tomato markets are integrated spatially, albeit weakly in the Brong Ahafo Region, signifying weak market efficiency. There is also an overall good quality relationship between food produce farmers and their traders which implies good market efficiency. Majority of the farmers are risk neutral and decide to increase production for the market as their response to the market signals. The study recommends that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture strengthens the implementation of its policy to reach farmers with extension education to enable them to effectively engage the market for increased production and farm profits to reduce poverty.