Technological innovations for smallholder farmers in Ghana

This chapter explores which community-based technologies have the greatest potential for reducing poverty and vulnerability among many smallholder farmers in Ghana. To this end, the stochastic dominance test was applied to rank outcomes from the different technologies used by the smallholder farmers in the study area. To show the effect of the technology on smallholder farmers’ income, propensity score matching was used to test for differences in income of technology adopters and non-adopters. Based on the findings of the study, we conclude that the dominant technologies that have the potential to reduce smallholder farmers’ level of poverty and marginality are: inorganic fertilizers for Afigya-Kwabre; zero tillage for Amansie-West; storage facilities for Atebubu-Amantin; marketing facilities for Kintampo South; improved varieties for Gonja East; and pesticides for the Tolon Districts.