Volume 4, Issue 4, December 2013, Pages 658–664
A. Adu-Appiah1, A. Wayo Seini2, A. Mensah-Bonsu3, and B.M. Dzomeku4
1 CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Box 3785, Kumasi, Ghana
2 University of Ghana, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Box LG 68 Legon, Accra, Ghana
3 University of Ghana, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Box LG 68 Legon, Accra, Ghana
4 CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Box 3785, Kumasi, Ghana
Original language: English
Copyright © 2013 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The study was conducted to analyze farmers' incentives and challenges in the internal marketing policy of cocoa in Ghana by using two administrative districts (Nkawie and Dunkwa) of the Ghana COCOBOD. A random sample of 171 respondents was drawn from across the two cocoa producing districts and the data analyzed using frequency tables and the Kendall's coefficient of concordance. Most cocoa Farmers were found to be land secured because they either owned their lands (73%) or practiced the abunu (21.1%) system of land tenure. Farmers mean age and farming experience were estimated as 52 and 17 years respectively; an indication of an ageing farming population and highly experienced cocoa farmers. Most farmers (87%) believed that the internal marketing policy of cocoa has provided non-pricing incentives for them to increase their cocoa production in Ghana. Prompt payment was found by 79% of farmers to be the most important incentive derived from the policy. This was followed by easy access to credit, and employments at the communities as the Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) compete among themselves at the farm-gate. However, farmers were mostly challenged by the way the LBCs adjust weighing scales at the farm gate to the disadvantage of farmers. It is therefore recommended that, the competition in the internal marketing should stay as the Ghana Standards Board strengthens their monitoring role of ensuring that weighing scales are not adjusted to the detriment of farmers.
Author Keywords: Internal Marketing, Cocoa, Policy, Farmer incentives, competitiveness.
A. Adu-Appiah1, A. Wayo Seini2, A. Mensah-Bonsu3, and B.M. Dzomeku4
1 CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Box 3785, Kumasi, Ghana
2 University of Ghana, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Box LG 68 Legon, Accra, Ghana
3 University of Ghana, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Box LG 68 Legon, Accra, Ghana
4 CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Box 3785, Kumasi, Ghana
Original language: English
Copyright © 2013 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The study was conducted to analyze farmers' incentives and challenges in the internal marketing policy of cocoa in Ghana by using two administrative districts (Nkawie and Dunkwa) of the Ghana COCOBOD. A random sample of 171 respondents was drawn from across the two cocoa producing districts and the data analyzed using frequency tables and the Kendall's coefficient of concordance. Most cocoa Farmers were found to be land secured because they either owned their lands (73%) or practiced the abunu (21.1%) system of land tenure. Farmers mean age and farming experience were estimated as 52 and 17 years respectively; an indication of an ageing farming population and highly experienced cocoa farmers. Most farmers (87%) believed that the internal marketing policy of cocoa has provided non-pricing incentives for them to increase their cocoa production in Ghana. Prompt payment was found by 79% of farmers to be the most important incentive derived from the policy. This was followed by easy access to credit, and employments at the communities as the Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) compete among themselves at the farm-gate. However, farmers were mostly challenged by the way the LBCs adjust weighing scales at the farm gate to the disadvantage of farmers. It is therefore recommended that, the competition in the internal marketing should stay as the Ghana Standards Board strengthens their monitoring role of ensuring that weighing scales are not adjusted to the detriment of farmers.
Author Keywords: Internal Marketing, Cocoa, Policy, Farmer incentives, competitiveness.
How to Cite this Article
A. Adu-Appiah, A. Wayo Seini, A. Mensah-Bonsu, and B.M. Dzomeku, “Internal Marketing Policy of Cocoa in Ghana: Farmers' Incentives and Challenges,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 658–664, December 2013.
