Adoption of good agricultural practices for sustainable maize and cowpea production: The role of enabling policy

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of maize and cowpea grain yields of 24 farmers in the Forest-Savannah Transition (Atebubu-Amantin) and Guinea Savannah (West-Mamprusi) zones of Ghana for 2012 and 2014 respectively at the inception and completion of the sustainable intensification of crop-livestock integration project. While only 7 and 2 farmers planted maize in rows at project inception, 12 and 9 farmers were recorded at project completion in Atebubu– Amantin and West–Mamprusi districts respectively. During 2012 cropping season, when farmers had access to fertilizer in the form of subsidy, only a farmer in each district did not apply fertilizer. However, the reverse was observed in 2014 where there was no subsidy. Comparing 2012 and 2014 cropping season results, revealed a 25% and 27% increase in maize grain yield in Atebubu– Amantin and West–Mamprusi districts respectively. Economic analysis revealed a high benefit cost ratio in maize and cowpea production in 2014 than in 2012 for both locations. The study has demonstrated that, enabling environment that encourages access to tools and implements for row planting and fertilizer in the form of subsidy would complement good agronomic technology packages introduced to farmers in order to ensure sustainable cereal and legume production.