Determinants of the sale of cattle in the Bole and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Districts

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Date
NOVEMBER, 2015
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Abstract
The overall objective of the study was to examine the determinants of the sale cattle by smallholder cattle producers in the Northern Region of Ghana. Consequently, the study examined the constraints to cattle production and marketing. The study delved into the main reasons why farmers keep cattle. A description of the channels of distribution from the farm to the final consumer was done and attention was paid to the constraints encountered by cattle farmers. The study provided evidence on the factors that influence the sales rate of cattle. The study was conducted in the Bole and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Districts. A sample size of 120 cattle producers was used. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the districts and the target communities, while the simple random sampling technique was applied to select the respondents. Likert scale ranking was used to examine the constraints of cattle production and marketing whereas Tobit model was used to estimate the factors affecting the sales rate of cattle. The results showed that majority of the respondents were keeping cattle for income (68.6%) and the incidence of animal disease was ranked as the most pressing constraint affecting the production of cattle. The results also showed that access to market information, the selling price of cattle, number of cattle owned, access to extension service and the experience of the farmer significantly and positively influenced cattle producers’ sale of animals in the market. However, distance to market and other sources of income had negative influence on cattle producers’ sale of animals in the market. The study recommended improved access to market information and technical information to improve cattle producers’ sale of animals in the cattle market in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study further recommended an improvement in market infrastructure and the periodic rehabilitation of roads to make them motorable so as to facilitate the movement of cattle producers to remote markets.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, in partial fulfulment of the requirements for the award of a degree of Master of Philosophy in Agricultural Economics.
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