Has microcredit boosted poultry production in Ghana?
ISSN: 0002-1466
Article publication date: 10 December 2019
Issue publication date: 20 March 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of microcredit on smallholder poultry production and its subsequent role on domestic protein and food supply.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional farm-level data from 61 farmers with at least two years of microcredit access and 39 farmers without microcredit access in the Dormaa Municipality of Ghana collected in 2016 via semi-structured questionnaire were used. Using the propensity score matching, PSM, and data envelopment analyses approaches, the authors analysed the propensity of farmers’ taking microcredit and its effect on beneficiaries’ technical efficiency, productivity, profitability and domestic production of chicken and eggs, farm performance. The authors addressed selection biases with the PSM and answered the research question of whether farmers with microcredit access perform better than non-microcredit farmers.
Findings
Farmers with high years of education, farming experience, technology and machinery as well as micro-savings and female farmers are more likely to take microcredit whereas large farm size reduces farmers’ propensity to take microcredit. Furthermore, farms with microcredit access were more technically efficient, productive and profitable than they would have been in the absence of microcredit.
Practical implications
The paper can be useful to policymakers and microcredit institutions since it provides evidence of microeconomic impacts of microcredit on agricultural production and the determinants of farmers’ participation in microcredit.
Originality/value
The study helps to understand how access to credit can improve smallholders’ technology adoption, production efficiency and productivity and output thereby enhancing domestic food supply.
Keywords
Citation
Agyemang, S.A., Ratinger, T. and Ahado, S. (2020), "Has microcredit boosted poultry production in Ghana?", Agricultural Finance Review, Vol. 80 No. 2, pp. 135-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/AFR-03-2019-0030
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited