Production changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms

The Ghana cocoa market has been extensively liberalised over the period since the mid 1980s. Three issues have been prominent in microeconomic research on the effects of liberalisation on agriculture. The first has been the size of any supply response, the second has been the effect on producers of...

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Main Authors: Teal, F, Vigneri, M
Format: Working paper
Language:English
Published: 2004
Subjects:
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author Teal, F
Vigneri, M
author_facet Teal, F
Vigneri, M
author_sort Teal, F
collection OXFORD
description The Ghana cocoa market has been extensively liberalised over the period since the mid 1980s. Three issues have been prominent in microeconomic research on the effects of liberalisation on agriculture. The first has been the size of any supply response, the second has been the effect on producers of reduced subsidies on inputs, and the third whether innovation has occurred. In this paper we investigate these issues by estimating a production function for cocoa in Ghana drawing on two household surveys covering the period from 1991 to 1998. The estimated production function allows identifying the factors underlying the change in output. The analysis of the micro data shows that the increase in household output has been very modest at 6 per cent. While the effect of liberalisation has been to raise the price of inputs we find that the contribution of such inputs to cocoa production has increased both relative to land and, very substantially, relative to labour. The ratio of both land and nonlabour inputs to labour rose implying a rise in labour productivity of 39 while land productivity was unchanged. We find no evidence that reforms have led to innovation in techniques which raise total factor productivity. Possible reasons for these outcomes are suggested.
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spelling oxford-uuid:cd2864ca-011c-4fea-ab12-37de3aab72142022-03-27T07:26:46ZProduction changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reformsWorking paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:cd2864ca-011c-4fea-ab12-37de3aab7214Development economicsMicroeconomicsEconomicsAfricaEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2004Teal, FVigneri, MThe Ghana cocoa market has been extensively liberalised over the period since the mid 1980s. Three issues have been prominent in microeconomic research on the effects of liberalisation on agriculture. The first has been the size of any supply response, the second has been the effect on producers of reduced subsidies on inputs, and the third whether innovation has occurred. In this paper we investigate these issues by estimating a production function for cocoa in Ghana drawing on two household surveys covering the period from 1991 to 1998. The estimated production function allows identifying the factors underlying the change in output. The analysis of the micro data shows that the increase in household output has been very modest at 6 per cent. While the effect of liberalisation has been to raise the price of inputs we find that the contribution of such inputs to cocoa production has increased both relative to land and, very substantially, relative to labour. The ratio of both land and nonlabour inputs to labour rose implying a rise in labour productivity of 39 while land productivity was unchanged. We find no evidence that reforms have led to innovation in techniques which raise total factor productivity. Possible reasons for these outcomes are suggested.
spellingShingle Development economics
Microeconomics
Economics
Africa
Teal, F
Vigneri, M
Production changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms
title Production changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms
title_full Production changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms
title_fullStr Production changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms
title_full_unstemmed Production changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms
title_short Production changes in Ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms
title_sort production changes in ghana cocoa farming households under market reforms
topic Development economics
Microeconomics
Economics
Africa
work_keys_str_mv AT tealf productionchangesinghanacocoafarminghouseholdsundermarketreforms
AT vignerim productionchangesinghanacocoafarminghouseholdsundermarketreforms