Journal of Economics and Development Studies

Effects of Farmer – Based- Organization on the Technical efficiency of Maize Farmers across Various Agro - Ecological Zones of Ghana
Kwabena Nyarko Addai, Victor Owusu, Gideon Danso-Abbeam

Abstract
This study uses cross-sectional data collected from 453 maize farmers across various agro ecological zones of Ghana in 2010 to evaluate the effect of farmer based organizations on maize farmer’s technical efficiency. We utilize propensity score matching to compare the average difference in the technical efficiency between farmer based organization members and similar independent farmers. The approach assumes exogenous farmer based organizations formation and similar farm technology across farmers. The result from the study shows that there is no significant impact of farmer based organization on technical efficiency of maize farmers. These results are found to be insensitive to hidden bias and contradicts the idea that farmer based organizations enhance members efficiency by easing access to productive inputs and facilitating extension linkages.

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