Socio Economic Impact of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Citrus Project on the Target Clients : (A Case Study of Birim South, West Akim and Kwaebibirem Districts of the Eastern Region of Ghana)
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Date
2007-08-10
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Abstract
ADRA, a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) has assisted farmers in the Birim South, West Akim and Kwaebibirem districts of Eastern Region with inputs to cultivate citrus as a means of alleviating poverty. The impact of this citrus project has not been evaluated since its inception. The study was therefore designed to assess the impact of ADRS's project on the socio-economic life of the beneficiaries in the target communities. Structured questionnaire was used to collect primary information from 240 households including 120 ADRA citrus beneficiaries and 120 non beneficiaries. The respondents were selected by simple random sampling. The impact of the intervention was afli^ssed using the 'with' and 'without' comparison. Statistical Z test for difference between means was used to test the validity of the hypotheses that there have been significant increases in production levels, citrus income per 0.4 hectare (lacre), household income, employment generation and household assets values ADRA beneficiary farmers as against non- ADRA beneficiary farmers. The study revealed that a total of 148.8 hectares of citrus was cultivated by the beneficiary farmers with an average size of 1.24 hectares whilst non-beneficiary farmers cultivated 277.2 hectares with an average size of 2.31 hectares. It was noted that the growth rate of citrus expansion by beneficiary farmers was larger than non-beneficiary farmers, whilst oil palm expansion was larger for non- beneficiary farmers than the beneficiary farmers. The study revealed that 87% of the market share of citrus in terms of volume is purchased at the farm gate. The results revealed that yield per 0.4 hectare, real income of citrus per 0.4 hectare, household real income and employment generation was higher for ADRA farmers than non- ADRA farmers and the difference was attributed to ADRA intervention. However, household assets values, was higher for non-ADRA farmers than ADRA farmers. The findings showed that high cost of inputs in the open market ranked the most important constraint encountered by ADRA farmers under the citrus project, and inadequate field visits by the Extension Agents being the least importance. It is recommended that for subsequent projects by ADRA, there should be proper and adequate costing of the project to cover economic life and to prevent difficulties during implementation.
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A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award
of Master of Science in Agricultural Economics at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, Faculty Of Agriculture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, 2007