Vegetable Production and Pesticide Use in Ghana: Would GM Varieties Have an Impact at the Farm Level?

J Horna (), Samuel E. Timpo, Ramatu M. Al-Hassan, Melinda Smale () and Jose Benjamin Falck-Zepeda
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: José Benjamin Falck Zepeda

No 52182, 2007 Second International Conference, August 20-22, 2007, Accra, Ghana from African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE)

Abstract: The objective of this study is to evaluate pesticide use as an important factor affecting potential adoption and farm level impact of genetically modified (GM) vegetable varieties in Ghana. Tomato is the most consumed vegetable and a food security crop. Cabbage is a vegetable of growing importance but limited cultivation and is produced in urban areas. Garden egg is a native African crop of wide consumption and importance for rural economies. Farm level information was collected in randomly selected sites in southern and central regions of Ghana. Partial budget analysis shows that investments in pesticides are rather low, especially for tomato and garden egg. Analysis of production using an abatement framework shows that insecticide amounts are significant in determining cabbage output levels only. Rate of returns of GM seeds however can still be high. GM varieties would need to show not only a high abatement rate and a high yield potential but mainly an affordable price, to reduce total costs and induce adoption.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Environmental Economics and Policy; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; International Relations/Trade; Marketing; Productivity Analysis; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 5
Date: 2008-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/52182/files/Horna.pdf (application/pdf)

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:ags:aaae07:52182

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.52182

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2007 Second International Conference, August 20-22, 2007, Accra, Ghana from African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().