Innovation Platforms as accelerators to agricultural technology adoption in Ghana

Following a base line survey of maize farmers in two innovation platforms (IPs), 600 farmers were randomly selected and engaged in mini-kits demonstrations in four districts in Ghana. Under the mini-kit demonstration, a kilogram of drought tolerant quality protein maize variety seeds-an improved variety from research was given to each farmer. The seeds were planted simultaneously within farmers maize fields on a 100 m2 (10m x 10m) area to enable them manage, observe, and compare with their own varieties on the same fields. At harvest, a 25m2 area was earmarked from within the improved variety and that of farmers’ variety, respectively and this generated time series data between 2013 and 2015. Economic analysis with partial budgeting approach was conducted using data from 2015 harvest. In all cases, the improved variety from research was found to be superior in terms of yield, drought resistance and pest and diseases resistance when subjected to on-farm conditions. The partial budget analysis showed a marginal benefit of GHC 2385.16 and a Marginal Rate of Returns (MRR) of 270 percent. The positive MRR indicates that switching from the current farmer varieties to improved varieties will enable farmers to gain extra income and improve their livelihoods. Further, the MRR of 270% revealed that farmers still have opportunity to earn additional income after recovering all the costs on investment. Given that the MRR was above the minimum acceptable rate of 100% for new technologies, it is therefore concluded that disseminating developed varieties and practices using the Innovation Platform Concept has considerable potential for increasing technology adoption in Ghana.