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Impact of aquaculture training on farmers’ income: Cluster randomized controlled trial evidence in Ghana

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Title Impact of aquaculture training on farmers’ income: Cluster randomized controlled trial evidence in Ghana
 
Creator Ragasa, Catherine
Amewu, Sena
Agyakwah, Seth K.
Mensah, Emmanuel
Asmah, Ruby
 
Subject aquaculture
government
sustainable development
small farmers
training
tilapia
impact assessment
biosecurity
incomes
management
production
 
Description Aquaculture in Ghana is experiencing tremendous growth, led mainly by large-scale commercial cage operators. A major objective of the government and its partners is to ensure that this rapid growth is sustainable and includes small-scale farmers and poor rural producers. This paper evaluates the aquaculture trainings implemented in six main tilapia-producing regions in Ghana as part of the Ghana Tilapia Seed Project. The impact evaluation is designed as a cluster randomized controlled trial, with half of the producing districts randomly-assigned as the treatment and the rest as the control, complemented by qualitative interviews. One year after the trainings, results show positive impacts on the adoption of good record-keeping, water management, and some biosecurity practices, and on productivity and incomes. In terms of mechanism, improved management practices resulted from reducing overstocking, reducing inbreeding, maintaining water level for fish ponds, regular pond clearing and establishing physical barriers, following advice and recommendations on feeding practices, and complementing feeding practices with farmers’ own feed formulation. Half of the trained farmers experienced lower fish mortality, faster growth, and heavier fish at harvest. Marketing and processing advice through the trainings and complementary FishConnect WhatsApp platform likely contributed to higher incomes, although the platform's coverage and regular updating can be improved.
 
Date 2022-11
2023-01-16T15:21:22Z
2023-01-16T15:21:22Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Ragasa, Catherine; Amewu, Sena; Agyakwah, Seth Koranteng; Mensah, Emmanuel; and Asmah, Ruby. 2022. Impact of aquaculture training on farmers’ income: Cluster randomized controlled trial evidence in Ghana. Agricultural Economics 53: 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12754
0169-5150
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/127231
https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12754
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format p. 5-20
 
Publisher Wiley
 
Source Agricultural Economics