Impact of cocoa cooperatives on farmers’ productivity and farmers' willingness to adopt additional livelihood strategies. The case study from Ghana

B.Sc. Emmanuel Amegbe

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Ahafo-Ano South West district of is one of the most densely populated cocoa growing areas in Ghana. Comprising of relatively small farms and a diverse combination of inhabitants, the district thrives in farming activities. Cocoa farming continues to be lucrative especially with the existing governmental and non-governmental organizations supporting cocoa cooperatives and other farmer-based organizations (FBOs) with inputs, extension and credit facilities. The EU, West African cocoa producers and other stakeholders have established policies to enhance the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the trade through cooperative activities. Support of the institutional capacity of producer groups seems to be one of the instruments for the empowerment of the farmers. Evaluation of the impact of cooperatives, particularly on smallholder farmers, is crucial given the growing cooperative and FBO activities in cocoa sector of Ghana as a whole. Therefore, the study's primary goal was to examine how membership in a cooperative or farmer group affects additional livelihood adoption and productivity of cocoa farms. Through this, the contribution of cooperatives towards rural development and poverty reduction was clearly established. 219 cooperative/FBO members and 197 non-group members were sampled from the district for this study. The majority of farmers; 211 out of 219 (cooperative/FBO members) and 84 out of 197 (non-members) had adopted an additional livelihood strategy. The Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjusted and Propensity Score-Matching methods were used to estimate the treatment effect on the treated. The results show that cooperative membership indeed had an influence on adoption of additional livelihood strategies. Further analysis into other factors that influence adoption proved that perception about ALS and knowledge about climate change had a positive influence. On the other hand, household size and access to information had a negative impact on adoption. Cooperative membership was also found to have a significant positive influence on the productivity of smallholder farmers in the region. Other factors that influenced productivity positively were; household size, farming experience, fertilizer application and extension services received by farmers. Age and farm size however had a negative impact on productivity. Findings from this study will inform policies in farmer intervention programs by stakeholders.

Keywords

Collective action, Social capital, Income diversification, Sustainable production, Poverty alleviation, Treatment effects

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 22. 4. 2023

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 30. 5. 2023
• Supervisor: Ing. Jiří Hejkrlík, Ph.D.
• Reader: Yiorgos Alexopoulos, externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme:
International Development and Agricultural Economics