文章基本信息

标题：Do NGOs and Development Agencies Contribute to Sustainability of Smallholder Soybean Farmers in Northern Ghanaâ€”A Stochastic Production Frontier Approach
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作者：Avea, Aniah Dominic ; Zhu, Jing ; Tian, Xu 等
期刊名称：Sustainability
印刷版ISSN：2071-1050
出版年度：2016
卷号：8
期号：5
出版社：MDPI, Open Access Journal
摘要：NGOs and development agencies have a conspicuous presence in facilitating capacity building, access to production resources and markets. Capacity building by NGOs and development agencies is expected to contribute to farm efficiency and sustainability by promoting and enhancing fertilizer use as well as increasing soil fertilities. However, the influence of these factors on technical efficiency as an important dimension of sustainability has not been further explored in Ghana. This study therefore assesses the influence of NGOs on technical efficiency among smallholder soybean farmers by applying stochastic frontier analysis. The data collected from 349 smallholder soybean producers in the three northern regions of Ghana are employed for the analysis. Results show that the mean technical efficiency of soybean production is 0.885, indicating a growth potential of 11.5%. Land area, agro-chemicals and seeds contribute to production growth while labor is over used. We find that NGO facilitation as well as group membership influences technical efficiency. Furthermore, farmers facilitated by NGOs and development agencies are 4.4 p.p. more efficient than non-facilitated farmers. Our study therefore implies that production and efficiency can be improved by providing more services to farmer group members and sustainable interventions from NGOs and social programs.
关键词：technical efficiency; sustainability; NGOs facilitation; soybean production; stochastic production frontier; Northern Ghana