Does the use of multiple agricultural technologies affect household welfare? Evidence from Northern Ghana
Wencong Lu, Kwabena Nyarko Addai, John N. Ng’ombe
Abstract
Agricultural intensification has been encouraged through the promotion of various agricultural technologies, but the synergies between different technologies have not been fully explored among various specific crops. Using the multinomial endogenous switching regression model complemented with the multivalued inverse probability regression model, this study determines the impacts of the adoption of combinations of chemical fertiliser, improved rice seeds, and herbicides on household welfare. Data were collected from 900 farm households in Northern Ghana. Our results indicate that the adoption of combinations of agricultural technologies is affected by various socio-economic attributes, resource constraints, institutional factors, and production shocks. We find that adopting multiple technologies improves rice yields, gross rice income, and per capita consumption expenditure. The results point out the crucial synergistic effects of the adoption of agricultural technologies on household welfare. We suggest that policies aimed at strengthening farm household welfare should encourage adopting multiple agricultural technologies in rice-producing farm households to realise the most welfare.