Abstract:
The main objective of the research was to examine the prospects and
challenges of developing and implementing precision agriculture (PA) in cocoa
production in Ghana. Correlational research design was used to collect data
using a multistage sampling technique from major stakeholders including
scientists (n=12), cocoa extension agents (CEAs) (n=63) and cocoa farmers
(n=416) in the cocoa industry in Ghana. Content-validated questionnaires and
structured interview schedules were used for data collection. Results were
analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, one way
ANOVA, post-hoc multiple comparison, correlation coefficients, and logistic
regression. The results of the study revealed that the majority of cocoa farmers
(83%) were willing to adopt precision agricultural technologies (PATs) but their
level of awareness of PATs was rather low. The level of awareness of scientists
and CEAs were high and fair respectively, however, they both had only a fair
knowledge in PA. Five major challenges expected to pose serious challenges to
the development and implementation of future PATs were (a) farmer
demographic characteristics, (b) economic, (c) educational, (d) environmental,
and (e) technical, with farmers’ demographic characteristics expected to be the
greatest. Even though correlation analysis showed that 12 out of 28 independent
variables had significant relationships with cocoa farmers’ willingness to adopt
PATs, the regression analysis revealed only five to be best predictors. The
overall best predictor was row planting which together with (a) educational level
of cocoa farmers, (b) credit from financial institutions, (c) relative advantage of
PATs, and the (d) perceived ease of use of PATs contributed between 38% to
60% of the variance in cocoa farmers’ willingness to adopt PATs. The study
concluded that even though PA has high prospects from cocoa farmers’
perspectives, scientists and CEAs believe that the prospects are relatively low
due to the enormous challenges that need to be overcome before PATs become
a reality in Ghana. The study recommended, among others, the establishment of
a PA unit in Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) to champion research
into PATs and practices, establishment of resilient research-extension-farmer
linkage system for requisite awareness creation and training of stakeholders,
and mainstreaming PA topics into institutions of higher learning in Ghana.
