The effect of the adoption of yam minisett technology on the technical efficiency of yam farmers in the forest-savanna transition zone of Ghana

Abstract

This paper uses cross-sectional data collected from 375 smallholder yam farmers in Ghana in 2010 to examine whether the adoption of yam minisett technology had an effect on the technical efficiency of production of the yam farmers. We correct for endogeneity in adoption and employ stochastic frontier analysis to investigate the effect of adoption of the technology on the technical efficiency of production. Our analysis suggests average technical efficiencies of 85.4% and 89.2% in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions respectively. In addition, the effect of adoption of the technology on the technical efficiency of smallholder farmers was positive and significant in the Ashanti region, but negative in the Brong Ahafo region. Our results provide information to improve the uptake of production technologies and their effect on smallholder yam farmers in Ghana.