| Popis: |
In this thesis I evaluate long-term productive and economic impacts of the Cocoa Abrabopa Association, a private sector initiative providing fertilizer and other agrochemicals to Ghanaian cocoa farmers on credit with a joint lia- bility. Both the productive and economic returns of the program are expected to be higher in the latter years of sustained membership in the program due to the accumulation of nutrients in the soil and the possibility of the exten- sion of the size of the loan provided by the program. Earlier work focused only on the estimation of the effect of adoption of agricultural technology but did not allow to examine possible difference in returns of a longer par- ticipation. This thesis contributes by evaluating the impacts in the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd year of the CAA membership and their comparison. By constructing and estimating a model for the impacts of longer participation I confirm the hypothesis of higher economic returns during the 2nd and the 3rd year of participation in the CAA program. The evidence which would confirm the hypothesis of higher agronomic returns has not been found in the case of CAA. 1 |
