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A key policy strategy towards poverty reduction and ensuring food security in sub-Saharan Africa is to assist poor farmers who over-depend on rainfall to reduce variability in production and increase productivity through small-scale private pump irrigation. Despite the fact that the performances of large scale irrigation schemes have not been efficient and optimal in terms of anticipated economic benefits, not much evidence exist on small-scale private pump irrigation as an alternative investment option in smallholder agricultural production in Africa. Not much emphasis also has been put on the opportunity costs of family labor time in small-scale private pump irrigation, which happens to be one of the key ingredients in the decision making of smallholder farmers who engage in irrigation agriculture. This paper examines the economics of small-scale private pump irrigation and agricultural productivity using a survey data collected in four administrative regions of Ghana, including, the Northern, Upper East, Eastern, and Volta. Mixed method approach that combines both qualitative and quantitative analytical tools are employed in the study. The empirical approach involves estimating a production function in order to derive the shadow wages of family labor directly from the marginal agricultural productivity. Notably, the production functions of small-scale private motor pump irrigators using groundwater and surface water and small-scale private manual pump irrigators are estimated and compared with that of rainfed farmers and gravity flow irrigators after which, the implicit wages of family labor is computed for each irrigation farmer. The paper finds that among the entire small-scale private pumps irrigators, groundwater motor pump irrigators have significantly higher value-added output and tend to do better in terms of financial returns to small-scale private pumps irrigation. The empirical results indicate that small-scale private motor pump irrigators who use groundwater or surface water are able to generate the highest implicit wage rate of family labor, and concludes that small-scale private pump irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa would be successful if it is combined with the efficient use of inputs of production, including seeds, fertilizer, and chemical inputs. The paper contributes to expanding the existing debate on irrigation development in sub-Saharan Africa by highlighting on the potential of small-scale private pump irrigation in Ghana. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa should consider irrigation as part of a wider agricultural policy strategy by promoting farmer education and developing market infrastructure to enhance the returns to small-scale private irrigation and attract private sector investors into the irrigation sub-sector.

This study sets out to investigate the antecedents of turnover intentions, using the private healthcare employees in an emerging economy (Ghana) as a benchmark. Even though myriad studies have been conducted on the aforementioned topic, yet, there are scant investigations on how employees of private healthcare institutions relate towards turnover intentions, specifically in a developing economy context. Therefore, this study draws on extant literature and subsequently proposes a hypothetical argument on the effect of training satisfaction, benefits and incentives on employee turnover intentions as well as resistance to change while establishing the nexus between turnover intentions and resistance to change. Both paper and web-based (online) questionnaires were gauged from employees of private healthcare organizations in Ghana. Data were analyzed by partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on a sample of 544 employees of private healthcare institutions. The findings indicate that training satisfaction, benefits and incentives have a positive impact on an employee's turnover intentions. Moreover, employee's resistance to change is influenced by both training satisfaction and benefits and incentives. Further, the investigation established that employee's resistance to change influences employee turnover intentions. The thoughtful mechanisms of how the running of private healthcare institutions in Ghana can be enhanced are expanded by the empirical results obtained through how employees can be satisfied by training and the application of rewards to reduce turnover. Moreover, administrators of private healthcare organizations are forewarned of the implications of employees' resistance to change and its effect on employee turnover intentions. Acknowledgment This study was supported by Tomas Bata University in Zlín, through IGA/FaME/2020/003 "Training and development programs and the consequence on employee's commitment, satisfaction and organizational performance: analysis from Czech public service sector".

AbstractThis paper quantifies the effects of the determinants of intersectoral labor mobility and the effect of intersectoral labor mobility on deforestation in Ghana over the period 1970–2008. A cointegration and error correction modeling approach is employed. The empirical results show that labor mobility from the agricultural to the non-agricultural sector exerts negative effects on deforestation in Ghana in the long run and short run. Relative agricultural income exerts a significant negative effect on intersectoral labor mobility in the long run. Deforestation is influenced positively by population pressure, the price of fertilizer and rainfall, whereas access to irrigation infrastructure exerts a negative effect in the long run. In the short run, real producer prices of cocoa and maize exert significant positive effects on deforestation whereas access to irrigation infrastructure exerts a negative significant effect. Fruitful policy recommendations based on the empirical magnitudes and directions of these effects are made in this paper.

The recent interest of the government of Ghana in agricultural mechanization has largely focused on the provision of tractors and imported machinery to the farming population. Animal traction has not received much attention from the country's policymakers. The strong demand for mechanization services (Houssou et al., 2012; Benin et al., 2012) and inadequate number of tractors to meet the demand in the country call for more effective use of other power sources for the agriculture sector. Using a survey of farmers who use draft animals and focus group discussions with farmers and key informants in the sector, this research examines the use of animal traction and analyses the major constraints to its widespread use in Northern Ghana. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP32; GSSP ; DSGD

Coastal fisheries communities in sub-Saharan Africa are under high socioeconomic vulnerability in the face of environmental pressures. This article contributes to the current adaptation debate by revisiting the benefits of in-situ adaptation. We assess possible in-situ adaptation strategies amid ongoing vulnerabilities by comparing Ghana and Tanzania. A total of 441 household surveys were conducted in four study sites. The major findings of the study are as follows: First, the three major in-situ adaptation strategies are regular changes of nondestructive fisheries techniques, alternative occupations, and collective action. Second, all three strategies have a significant relationship with income change. Finally, the communities in Tanzania utilized all three strategies more and performed better economically than those in Ghana. On the basis of these insights, we suggest implications of in-situ adaptation for future coastal development in sub-Saharan Africa.