Access to mutual labour support in agriculture: Implications for maize productivity and efficiency of farmers in northern Ghana

ABSTRACT

Access to cheap labour affects Ghanaian smallholder farmers significantly. Such access can be enhanced through mutual labour support. However, it has become necessary to explore how this form of collective action affects farmers’ productivity and efficiency. In this study, the impact of access to mutual labour support on productivity and technical efficiency was estimated using data collected from 592 smallholder maize farmers in Northern Ghana. The study uses a translog stochastic production frontier model, while accounting for sample selection bias that may emanate from both observable and unobservable household characteristics. Farmers with access to mutual labour support are significantly more productive and technically efficient than those without, with mean technical efficiency in the range of 0.62–0.71 for farmers with access to mutual labour support and 0.55–0.60 for those without access. Sex, education, spraying machine ownership, farm size, extension visits, access to credit, and membership of farmer-based organisation are significant determinants of access to mutual labour support. Policies to help farmer groups and extension agents promote mutual labour support accessibility among farmers are recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Mutual labour support
• stochastic frontier model
• selectivity bias
• technical efficiency
• Violin plot

JEL CODE:

• Q12

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Smallholder farmers are those who cultivate less than 2 hectares of land (MoFA 2021).

2 The unmatched sample includes subgroups with unrelated characteristics, while the matched sample includes subgroups with identical characteristics, except for farmers’ access to MLS.