Agricultural intensification in Ghana: Evaluating the optimist's case for a Green Revolution

Food Policy

Volumn 48, Issue , 2014, Pages 153-167

  Nin Pratt, Alejandro ^a   McBride, Linden ^b  

^a INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE   (United States)

^b Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management Cornell University ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

Agricultural intensification; Agricultural policy; Fertilizer use; Ghana; Technological change

Indexed keywords

EID: 84905506234     PISSN: 03069192     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.05.004     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Acemoglu D. Why do new technologies complement skills? Directed technical change and wage inequality. Quart. J. Econ. 1998, 113(1998):1055-1090.
2. Acemoglu D. Directed technical change. Rev. Econ. Stud. 2002, 69(2002):781-810.
3. Acemoglu D. Equilibrium bias of technology. Econometrica 2007, 75(2007):1371-1410.
4. Acemoglu, D., 2009. When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? Working Paper 14809, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
5. Afriat S. Efficiency estimation of production functions. Int. Econ. Rev. 1972, 13:568-598.
6. Aidoo R., Nimoh F., Andivi Bakang J.E., Ohene-Yankyera K., Cudjoe Fialor S., Abaidoo R.C. Economics of small-scale seed yam production in Ghana: implications for commercialization. J. Sust. Dev. Afr. 2011, 13(7):65-78.
7. Banker R.D., Charnes A., Cooper W.W. Some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis. Manage. Sci. 1984, 30(9):1078-1092.
8. Barrett C.B., Sherlund S.M., Adesina A.A. Shadow wages, allocative inefficiency, and labor supply in smallholder agriculture. Agric. Econ. 2008, 38(1):21-34.
9. Binswanger H.P. Evaluating research system performance and targeting research in land-abundant areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. World Dev. 1986, 14(4):469-475.
10. Binswanger H.P., Pingali P. Technological priorities for farming in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank Res. Observer 1988, 3(1):81-98.
11. Binswanger H.P., Ruttan V.W. Induced Innovation: Technology, Institutions and Development 1978, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
12. Boserup E. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agricultural Change under Population Pressure 1965, Allen and Unwing, London.
13. Bumb, B.L., Baanante, C.A., 1996. The role of fertilizers in sustaining food security and protecting the environment: Trends to 2020. Food, Agriculture and the Environment. Discussion Paper 17. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute.
14. Chamberlin J., Jayne T.S., Headey D. Scarcity amid Abundance? Reassessing the potential for cropland expansion in Africa. Food Policy 2014, 48:51-65.
15. Cherchye L., Post T. Technical and economic efficiency measures under short run profit maximizing behavior. Rec. écon. Louvain 2010, 76(2):163-173.
16. Cherchye L., Van Puyenbroeck T. Profit efficiency analysis under limited information with an application to German farm types. Omega 2007, 35(3):335-349.
17. Cleaver K.M., Donovan W.G. Agriculture, poverty, and policy reform in Sub-Saharan Africa 1995, World Bank, Washington, DC.
18. Cook W.D., Seiford L.M. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) - Thirty years on. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2009, 192(1):1-17.
19. Crawford E., Kelly V., Jayne T.S., Howard J. Input use and market development in Sub-Saharan Africa: an overview. Food Policy 2003, 28(4):277-292.
20. Debreu G. The coefficient of resource utilization. Econometrica 1951, 19:273-292.
21. Diao X., Headey D., Johnson M. Toward a green revolution in Africa: what would it achieve, and what would it require?. Agric. Econ. 2008, 39(2008):539-550.
22. Diewert W.E., Parkan C. Linear programming tests of regularity conditions for production frontiers. Quantitative Studies on Production and Prices 1983, Physica-Verlag, Würzburg. W. Eichhorn, R. Henn, K. Neumann, R.W. Shephard (Eds.).
23. Smallholder Cash Crop Production Under Market Liberalisation: A New Institutional Economics Perspective 1998, CABI Publishers, Wallingford, UK. A.R. Dorward, J. Kidd, C. Poulton (Eds.).
24. Evenson R.E., Gollin D. Assessing the impact of the Green Revolution 1960 to 2000. Science 2003, 300:758-762.
25. FAO, 2013. FAO Country Profiles: Ghana. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. <>. http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index/en/?iso3=GHA.
26. Farrell M.J. The measurement of productive efficiency. J. Roy. Stat. Soc. Series A (general) 1957, 253-290.
27. Goldman A. Agricultural innovation in three areas of Kenya: Neo-Boserupian theories and regional characterization. Econ. Geogr. 1993, 69(1):44-71.
28. Goldman A., Smith J. Agricultural transformations in India and Northern Nigeria: exploring the nature of Green Revolutions. World Dev. 1995, 23(2):243-263.
29. Gollin, D., Jedwab, R., Vollrath, D., 2013. Urbanization with and without Industrialization. Unpublished paper. <>. http://dept.econ.yorku.ca/seminars/gjv_040213.pdf.
30. Gordon A. Improving Small-Holder Access to Purchased Inputs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Policy Series 7 2000, Natural Resources Institute, Chatham, UK.
31. Greene W. Frontier production functions. Handbook of Applied Econometrics, Microeconometrics, vol. II 1997, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford. M.H. Pesaran, P. Schmidt (Eds.).
32. GSS. Ghana living standards survey. Report of the Fifth Round (GLSS 5), 2008. Ghana Statistical Services. Available at:. http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/glss5_report.pdf.
33. Hanoch G., Rothschild M. Testing assumptions of production theory: a nonparametric approach. J. Polit. Econ. 1972, 80:256-275.
34. Hayami Y., Ruttan V.W. Factor prices and technical change in Agricultural Development: The United States and Japan, 1880-1960. J. Polit. Econ. 1971, 78:1115-1141.
35. Hayami Y., Ruttan V.W. Agricultural Development: An international perspective 1985, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. second ed.
36. Headey D., Jayne T.S. Adaptation to land constraints: is Africa different?. Food Policy 2014, 48:18-33.
37. Hillocks R.J. Cassava in Africa. Cassava: Biology, Production and Utilization 2002, 41-54. CAB International, Wallingford, CT. R.J. Hillocks, J.M. Thresh, A.C. Bellolli (Eds.).
38. Jayne T.S., Govereh J., Mwanaumo A., Nyoro J., Chapoto A. False promise or false premise: the experience of food and input market reform in Eastern and Southern Africa. World Dev. 2002, 30(11):1967-1986.
39. Jayne T.S., Headey D., Chamberlin J. Land pressures, agricultural intensification and development strategies in Africa. Food Policy 2014, 48:1-17.
40. Lipton, M., 2012. Learning from Others: Increasing Agricultural Productivity for Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. WP 2012-007. UNDP, Addis Ababa.
41. Maredia M.K., Byerlee D., Pee P. Impacts of food crop improvement research: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. Food Policy 2000, 25:531-559.
42. Morris, M., Kelly, V.A., Kopicki, R.J., Byerlee, D., 2007. Fertilizer use in African agriculture: Lessons learned and good practice guidelines. ARD Directions in Development. Washington, DC: World Bank. <>. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/01/7462470/fertilizer-use-african-agriculture-lessons-learned-good-practice-guidelines.
43. Pingali P.L. Green Revolution: impacts, limits and the path ahead. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2012, 109:12302-12308.
44. Reardon T., Barrett C., Kelly V., Savadogo K. Policy reforms and sustainable agricultural intensification in Africa. Dev. Policy Rev. 1999, 17(4):375-395.
45. Ruthenberg H. Farming Systems in the Tropics 1980, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
46. Smith J., Barau A., Goldman A., Mareck J. The role of technology in agricultural intensification: The evolution of maize production in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria. Economic Development and Cultural Change 1994, 42(3):537-554.
47. Thiam A., Bravo-Ureta B.E., Rivas T.E. Technical efficiency in developing country agriculture: a meta-analysis. Agric. Econ. 2001, 25(2-3):235-243.
48. Treviño, J., Thomas, A.H., 2013. Resource Dependence and Fiscal Effort in Sub-Saharan Africa. IMF Working Paper No. 13/188.
49. Varian H.R. The non-parametric approach to production analysis. Econometrica 1984, 52:579-598.
50. Varian H.R. Goodness-of-fit in optimizing models. J. Econ. 1990, 46:125-140.
51. Vigneri, M., 2007. Drivers of cocoa production growth in Ghana. ODI Project Briefing. No 4. Overseas Development Institute, London.
52. Woodhouse P. Technology, environment and the productivity problem in African agriculture: comment on the World Development Report 2008. J. Agrarian Change 2009, 9(2):263-276.