American International Journal of Social Science

Information Efficiency and the Cocoa Supply Chain in Ghana
Collins, Opoku Antwi; Aboagye, Michael Osei; Justice, Owusu Antwi; Margaret, Osei-Boateng

Abstract
The challenges of the cocoa supply chain in Ghana have received enormous attention from researchers over the years. This research particularly focused on how efficiency of information from the standpoint of the cocoa farmer contributes to eliminating or ameliorating some of these challenges and thereby impacting on farmers’ productivity. Certain risks or challenges have therefore been highlighted time and time again. Among these consist predominantly of issues relating to seedling procurement, fertilizer application, pests and diseases control, and credit and loans facilities. The research therefore explored how information efficiency in these areas impacted on farmers’ productivity. Data were collected from three cocoa farming communities in the Eastern Region of Ghana with sample size of 300 and through the use of multiple regression and descriptive statistics tools, established and tested four hypotheses that were produced from the review of literature. The research outcome indicated a strong impact of the lone as well as the combined impacts of the predictor variables; information efficiency levels in seedling procurement, fertilizer application, pests and diseases control and credit and loans facilities on the dependent variable; farmers’ productivity. The research also established the relation between gender and income levels of farmers and the information efficiency levels and the resultant effects on farmers’ productivity. In respect of these findings, recommendations are offered to improve information dissemination among cocoa farmers in the areas in issue in particular, and Ghana as a whole.

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