Status of Agricultural Mechanization in Ghana: Insight from Farmers’ Perception, Population, and Nonagricultural Sector Growth

Abstract

The growing human population is a driver for higher food demands with a need to scale agricultural production and maintain security of the food supply chain. Thus, there is a need to increase the adoption and improvement of mechanized systems in agriculture, especially where needed labor is also drifting into nonagricultural production sectors. With this view, the relationship or link between population and employment in nonagricultural sector in Ghana (West Africa) to agricultural mechanization was tested to ascertain any such validity. This formed the primary basis for this study and furthered on to establish the current level of agricultural mechanization within the country through measuring effect of available farm energy sources on farm sizes under cultivation. The methods employed included a structured questionnaire administered to farmers and other agricultural stakeholders to determine the level of mechanization, readiness to adopt/accept mechanization technology, level of usage of mechanization technologies, and ownership of machinery. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 20) software was used to model and analyze data obtained including a multiple regression method for the relationship between parameters. The overall level of agricultural mechanization in Ghana was found to be very low with 77.6% of the farm operations being performed manually. The level of the tractor power availability in Ghana was found to have increased from 0.0207 kW/ha in the year 2004 to 0.0588 kW/ha in the year 2020 and is expected to increase to 0.0752 kW/ha in the year 2025. The power availability valued in this study was also found to be low compared with that in other developing countries. Statistically, both employment in the service sector and population growth were significant determinants (Adjusted−R2=0.9172) in the variations in the level of mechanization of agriculture in Ghana and policymakers will have to make adjustments in policies to take note of these indicators most often underplayed. Advocacy for higher levels of mechanization of agricultural operations must increase as it is critical to the overall cost of production in agriculture as this study also found out that mechanized operations were between 21.3% and 53.8% cheaper than manual operations.