Papers by Dadson Awunyo-Vitor
Advances in agriculture, Jan 24, 2023
Organic fertilizer commercialization may present a great opportunity to help deal with the issue ... more Organic fertilizer commercialization may present a great opportunity to help deal with the issue of solid waste management and help improve the declining soil problems in many developing countries. Ghana's solid waste is predominantly organic, which is suitable for organic fertilizer production. Tis paper seeks to establish relationship between organic fertilizer usage and crop farm performance and assess its commercialization potential. Te study employed a farmer-survey and key informant interviews to generate data from 300 farmers randomly selected across three regions in Ghana. Te computed organic fertilizer use rate is 42% among farmers surveyed, and organic fertilizer is primarily used in vegetable and maize production. Te estimated current demand for organic fertilizer is about 0.7 million t/annum with a potential to rise to about 2.7 million t/annum in the long term. Tis will however require sensitization on its importance, availability, and afordability. Te study has established a strong relationship between organic fertilizer adoption and farm performance increasing yield by 57%, income by 53%, and gross margins by 63%. Tere is obviously a cost reduction when organic fertilizer is adopted. Organic fertilizer adoption was found to be mainly related to farmer base organization membership status, access to extension services, access to organic fertilizer, and transport cost. Organic fertilizer commercialization has the potential to make Ghana a net exporter of fertilizer and create sustainable jobs for the youth. We recommend the use of organic fertilizer by farmers and highly recommend the commercial production of organic fertilizer.
The study examines characteristics of informal financial market in Ghana and identifies the deter... more The study examines characteristics of informal financial market in Ghana and identifies the determinants of maize farmers’ participation in informal financial market. The analysis is based on data collected from a survey of 595 maize farmers in seven districts of Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana during May-July 2010. Descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and logit model were used to analyse the data. The study revealed that intermediaries operating within the informal financial market are relatives and friends, maize traders, farm input sellers and private money lenders. Maize traders are major players in the informal credit market followed by agricultural input sellers. Also the study revealed that informal lenders accept maize for loan repayment. Analysis of variance suggests that the mean loan period and amount were not statistically significant among informal lenders. However, there is significant difference among interest rate offered by informal lenders....
Environmental Economics, 2017
This study examined the awareness of and value for sustainability reporting by accountants workin... more This study examined the awareness of and value for sustainability reporting by accountants working with small and medium size practicing firms in Kumasi, Ghana. Data was solicited from 68 sampled employees of small and medium size audit firms in Kumasi metropolis. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data with the help of SPSS statistical software. The study revealed that all the firms are owned by qualified accountants who are members of Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA) Ghana and that large proportion of the employees in small and medium size audit firms are not qualified accountants. About 32 percent of the respondent is aware of sustainability reporting and 98% of those who are aware of sustainability reporting indicated that such reporting is of value to the organization and stakeholders. About 44% of the respondents who are aware indicated that they got to know of sustainability accounting from online resources and 29% read about it from textbook while the res...
Urban Studies Research, 2013
Solid waste management within Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly area continues to be a major challenge... more Solid waste management within Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly area continues to be a major challenge for the municipal assembly and one of the key issues is its financial constraints. This study was undertaken to examine households' willingness to pay for improved solid waste management services. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select six hundred respondents for the study. Logistic regression model was used to establish the determinants of willingness to pay for solid waste management whilst the Tobit model was used to evaluate the factors influencing the amount of money the households are willing to pay for improved solid waste management. The logistic model shows that income, age, number of children, quantity of waste generated, and education have significant effects on the willingness to pay, while the amount of money the households are willing to pay was influenced by their income, quantity of waste generated, education, house ownership, and number of children. ...
Journal of Accounting and Taxation, Feb 28, 2015
The study examined the awareness and level of compliance with gift tax by formal sector employees... more The study examined the awareness and level of compliance with gift tax by formal sector employees in Kumasi Metropolis Ghana. Two hundred and fifty-two respondents were sampled for the study using the purposive sampling method. Questionnaire was used to solicit data and information from the respondents. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and probit regression model. The results of the study revealed that the level of compliance with the gift tax is very low. The key reason identified in the study for the low level of compliance with gift tax among Ghanaian taxpayers is unawareness of gift tax obligations. The probit regression result revealed that level of education, knowledge of tax law, and penalty for non-compliance significantly influence respondents' decision to comply with the gift tax law .Hence, the low level of education offered by the Ghana Revenue Authority on the gift tax and non-enforcement of the law have contributed to the low level of compliance. The study therefore recommends that the Ghana Revenue Authority should step up education on the gift tax law and enforce penalty for non-compliance to improve revenue from gift tax.
Viability of artisanal timber milling: cases from Ghana
Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy
Purpose A key strategy in the policy of saw millers and artisanal millers supplying the domestic ... more Purpose A key strategy in the policy of saw millers and artisanal millers supplying the domestic market with legal and sustainable lumber is the transformation of chainsaw operators into legal artisanal millers to stop the production of illegal timber and supply only authorized wood to local trade points. The challenge, however, is how to develop the concept of its viability and acceptability to the chainsaw operators. Specifically, existing and potential investors’ knowledge about the possible costs and revenue is non-existent. This study aims to examine the financial and economic viability of the artisanal timber milling (ATM) business in rural Ghana. Design/methodology/approach Using data from three operational artisanal milling companies in Ghana, net present value, internal rate of return, profitability index and payback period were used in analyzing the viability of artisanal timber milling. Findings The results showed that the ATM business is financially and economically viab...
Hunger Project credit facility and maize productivity in Ghana
Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development
Customers’ awareness and knowledge level of fraudulent acts in electronic banking in Ghana: evidence from a universal bank
Journal of Financial Crime
Purpose This study aims to assess customers’ awareness and level of knowledge on electronic banki... more Purpose This study aims to assess customers’ awareness and level of knowledge on electronic banking fraud. Design/methodology/approach A well-structured interviewer-assisted questionnaire was used to collect data from 400 clients of a case study bank. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) statistic was also estimated to track and rank the fraudulent activities identified by the respondents with respect to electronic banking. Findings This study found that respondents were aware of most of the specific forms of electronic banking fraud. Firstly, automated teller machinfraud is the most common scam for which customers are aware of. Secondly, institutional factors such as lack of monitoring and education of clients are major factors which expose the bank and clients to fraudulent electronic banking acts. Thirdly, the most effective action that can be taken to prevent fraud in the bank is increased security and personal identification ...
Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics
Research background: Despite the growing social recognition of the positive role played by organi... more Research background: Despite the growing social recognition of the positive role played by organic farming in the conservation of natural resources and the reduction or elimination of the negative externalities of modern agriculture, the economic competitiveness of organic versus conventional agriculture is a contentious issue. Studies on scale efficiency in the agricultural economics literature, in general, did not address the differences in production practices such as organic and conventional production. Purpose of the article: We estimated scale efficiency of organic and conventional production, tested for differences between organic and conventional agriculture scale efficiency, and explored the sources of inefficiencies. Methods: This was accomplished using cross-sectional data on 658 organic and conventional cocoa farmers, for the 2012/13 production season in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The analysis accounted for selection bias and recognised the fractional property of the scale efficiency measure. Findings & Value added: Organic agriculture is less scale efficient than conventional agriculture. Whilst we recommend that both producer groups improve scale efficiency, organic producers require greater work to do to make up for the almost 50% scale inefficiency. We also found farmer-based organisations to significantly influence scale efficiency. This calls for the need to strengthen farmer-based organisations to increase participation, among other reasons. We departed from the existing scale efficiency literature in a three of ways. We accounted for selection-bias using propensity score matching in the organic and conventional samples in analysing scale efficiency, modelled scale inefficiency using fractional regression and empirically selected the appropriate link function using a battery of tests. Finally, we accounted for an important policy variable; farmer-based organisation. We employed propensity score matching that accounted from observable biases. Further research may consider other methods that account for both observed and unobserved variations.
Profitability determinants of abattoir business in an emerging economy
International Journal of Accounting and Finance
Contract farming and rice production efficiency in Ghana
Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies
PurposeEven though many studies identify positive effects of contract farming (CF) on the livelih... more PurposeEven though many studies identify positive effects of contract farming (CF) on the livelihood of farmers, the use of CF as a tool to increase farm performance is unsettled debate. Information on CF is relatively not available in staple food chains. Theoretical considerations have shown that there are challenges in employing CF in staple food chains such as rice. With the increasing trend of rice CF in Ghana, it is very critical to establish its performance in rice production in Ghana. It is therefore imperative to analyse the impact of CF on the performance of smallholder rice farmers.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted where 350 rice farmers selected through a stratified sampling technique using structured questionnaires were interviewed. Descriptive and inferential statistics including stochastic frontier analyses and endogenous treatment effect regression were used to analyse the data.FindingsThe results from the endogenous treatment effect regression model s...
South Asian Journal of Social Studies and Economics
The study examined the relationship between product characteristics and price of tomatoes in Ghan... more The study examined the relationship between product characteristics and price of tomatoes in Ghana. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 sampled tomato farmers. The data collected included the price and quality characteristics of tomatoes traded in spot transactions in Akumadan and Tanoso districts in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. In respect of inferential statistics, hedonic price model was used to determine factors influencing farm grate price of tomatoes in the study area. The results of the study revealed that the age group involved in tomato production in the study area is youthful and dominated by men. Illiteracy is high and the majority of farmers are of Akan origin with a family-size above five (5). About half of the respondents sell their produce at the farm gate. According to the result of the hedonic model, five factors are statistically significant in the de...
Profit Efficiency Among Maize Farmers and Implications for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security in Ghana
Scientific African
Agriculture & Food Security
Background: Whether or not maize farmers are technically efficient determines their choice of pro... more Background: Whether or not maize farmers are technically efficient determines their choice of productivity improvement strategy and very important for achieving the sustainable development goals on no poverty and zero hunger. This study examined technical efficiency and its determinants of Ghana's maize farmers. Analysis of the determinants is crucial to devising strategies aimed at improving technical efficiencies of the farmers as well as ensuring no poverty and zero hunger. Methods: The study used cross-sectional data collected from 576 maize farmers in the four main agro-ecological zones of Ghana with the aid of structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and the stochastic frontier production function were the methods of analysis used. Results: The results showed that the mean technical efficiency estimate for maize farmers in Ghana was 58.1%. They also revealed that an increase in educational level, maize farming experience, extension contact as well as uses of fertilizer and improved seeds would increase the technical efficiency of maize producers in Ghana. Similarly, male Ghanaian maize farmers were more technically efficient than female farmers. Furthermore, membership of a farmer association will increase their technical efficiencies. Finally, an increase in farm size and land fragmentation will decrease technical efficiency of the maize farmers. Conclusion: Efficiency improvement programmes by stakeholders in the maize industry could target literate maize farmers since education enhances the managerial and technical skills of farmers and also increase farmers' ability to utilize existing technologies. Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) could also liaise with Ministry of Education to provide maize farmers with no formal education with special training prior to introducing new efficiency enhancing programmes to them. MOFA should analyse the problems extension officers face in the discharge of their duties to pave the way for the provision of appropriate incentives to extension officers by stakeholders in the maize industry.
Advances in Agriculture
Irrigation production is a means by which agricultural production can be increased to meet the gr... more Irrigation production is a means by which agricultural production can be increased to meet the growing food demands in the world. This study evaluated the effect of irrigation ecology on farm household technical, allocative, and economic efficiency of smallholder rice farmers. Cross-sectional data was obtained from 350 rice farmers across rain fed and irrigation ecologies. Stochastic frontier analyses are used to estimate the production efficiency and endogenous treatment effect regression model is used to estimate the impact of irrigation ecology on rice production efficiency. The impact of irrigation ecology on technical efficiency is about 0.05, which implies farmers producing under irrigation ecology are more technically efficient in their rice production than those in rain fed production. The impact of irrigation ecology on allocative efficiency is about 0.33, which shows that farmers participating in irrigation farming are more allocatively efficient in their rice production t...
Cogent Economics & Finance
Contract Farming (CF) is increasing been used as a strategy in rice production in Ghana whiles th... more Contract Farming (CF) is increasing been used as a strategy in rice production in Ghana whiles there is no empirical data supporting it. This study investigated the importance of CF in rice production. Cross-sectional farm household level data collected from 350 rice farmers randomly selected across the rice production areas of Ghana was used. The adoption and casual impact of CF was estimated using endogenous switching regression and propensity score matching methods. Results revealed positive and significant relationship between CF and farm performance measures (yield and gross margins). Results indicate that, contract farming increases yield and gross margins significantly. It further identified; educational level, rice farm size and ISFM as positive determinants of contract participation. This evidence provides strong support for efforts to promote CF in Ghana. Educated farmers should be targeted for CF participation because their propensity to participate in CF is high. Sensitising our illiterate farmers to participate in Contract Farming should be vigorously pursued. Contract Farming should also be encouraged as a means to promote the adoption of ISFM technology. Contract farming is recommended as a good tool for developing the local rice value chain in Ghana.
Households? Awareness and Perception of Sanitation Bye-Laws in Ghana: Evidence from Kumasi Metropolis
Research Journal of Environmental and Earth Sciences
Customer Retention Strategies of SIC Life Insurance Company Limited and StarLife Assurance Company Limited in Ghana: An Exploratory Assessment
Current Research Journal of Social Sciences
Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business
This paper presents a discussion on the theoretical and conceptual framework on issues relating t... more This paper presents a discussion on the theoretical and conceptual framework on issues relating to access to financial services. The discussion begins by providing details of various theories that underpin the demand and supply side of access to financial services. The supply dimension of access to financial services is guided by the information asymmetry theory and the transaction cost theory, while the key demand dimension theories are the delegated monitoring theory and the rational choice theory. In the later sections, a conceptual framework was developed for the empirical evaluation of access to financial services and its impact on productivity with particular reference to farmers in emerging economies. The last section provides the concluding remarks, which recommends the use of empirical analyses to access factors influencing access and the impact of the access to farmers’ productivity.
Cogent Economics & Finance
The study examined the causal linkage between oil price change and economic growth. The study mad... more The study examined the causal linkage between oil price change and economic growth. The study made use of secondary data that were extracted from World Development Indicators and International Financial Statistics. Descriptive statistics, unit root test, Johansen cointegration test and Granger causality test were employed to analyse the data. The results of the study revealed that there exists an inverse relationship between oil price change and economic growth in Ghana. However, the effect of oil price change on economic growth is statistically insignificant in the long run. The result of the Granger causality similarly revealed a unidirectional causality between oil prices and economic. In conclusion, the variation in oil price has no effect on the growth of the Ghanaian economy; hence, policies to influence economic growth should be independently pursued of oil price changes.
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Papers by Dadson Awunyo-Vitor