Maize farmers acceptance and willingness to pay for drone services for the control of fall Armyworm in Northern Ghana

Abstract

In Ghana, maize is one of the major staple food crops. Since 2016, it has been plagued by fall armyworm, leaving production capacity below the national average. The introduction of drone technology is to assist farmers to reduce havoc caused by fall armyworm. Majority of research done in the area of drone technology has focus on the technical and mechanical aspect. This gap gives rise to this study, as the study seeks to; describe the socio-economic characteristics of maize farmers, examine preferred options by maize farmers for control of FAW, assess and compare the total perceived effect of the field usage of various spraying methods of pesticide, assess and compare the Enterprise analysis of experimental plots for the application of pesticides for the control of FAW, ascertain farmers’ willingness to pay for drone services for the control of FAW and determine factors that influence the acceptance of drone services for the control of FAW. The study adopted cross sectional survey design to ascertain the interplay of variables. The research used a multi-stage sampling technique to obtain 152 sample out of 301 population. The research used questionnaire as the data collection tool. The data was stored and analysed using Microsoft Excel, SPSS 25.0 and StataSE 13.0. The results of the study revealed synthetic control was the preferred control option. With objective two, it was revealed that drone technology had high financial effect on farmers. Whiles, on the Enterprise analysis, it was revealed that the cost of drone plot was high relatively to that of knapsack but the gains from it was better off. Majority of respondent were willing to pay for drone service but did not have enough resource. Willingness to pay was influenced by farmers’ gender, access to input and information, status in the household and contact with extension agents. Lastly, it was revealed that maize farmer’s decision to accept drone service was influenced by maize farmers’ status in the household, content and accessibility of drone services. In conclusion, maize farmers in the North-East and Northern Regions showed high level of acceptance of drone services but faced financial difficulties in accessing it. The study recommends that MoFA and NGOs into agriculture should help provide credit to maize farmers to boost their acceptance of drone services.