A Comparative Analysis of Productivity among Organic and Non-Organic farms in the West Mamprusi District of Ghana

Yakubu B. Issaka, Moses Antwi and Gladys Tawia
Additional contact information
Yakubu B. Issaka: Department of Agribusiness Management and Finance, Faculty of Agribusiness and Communication Sciences, University for Development Studies, Tamale, TL 1350 NR, Ghana
Moses Antwi: Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, University for Development Studies, Tamale, TL 1350 NR, Ghana
Gladys Tawia: Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, University for Development Studies, Tamale, TL 1350 NR, Ghana

Agriculture, 2016, vol. 6, issue 2, 1-10

Abstract: The study was conducted in organic and conventional crop farms in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region of Ghana. The key issue the study sought to determine was whether there are productivity differences among organic and conventional crop farms and what factors account for these differences. The results indeed revealed that there are productivity differences among organic and conventional crop farms. However, both had negative total factor productivity growth, largely accounted for by a negative technical change over the period considered. The technical efficiency change, however, was positive for both but much higher for organic farms than conventional farms. More importantly, the study revealed that the type of agriculture practiced by farmers is not the most critical problem confronting farmers as indicated by the negative total productivity growth for both. Major constraints confronting farmers that need to be addressed include better organization on the farmers’ front, improved access to extension and improved access to farm inputs. These challenges notwithstanding, the study revealed that organic agriculture has the potential, in the long run, to achieve much more progress in total factor productivity, compared to conventional agriculture, if the right conditions exist for its uptake and optimal application.

Keywords: organic; conventional; productivity; agriculture; efficiency; technical change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/6/2/13/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/6/2/13/ (text/html)

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:gam:jagris:v:6:y:2016:i:2:p:13-:d:66892

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().