Title: Determinants of marketing channel choice among smallholder beef cattle farmers in Ghana's forest-savannah transitional zone

Authors: Akwasi Mensah-Bonsu; Charlotte Owusu; Ditchfield P.K. Amegashie; John K.M. Kuwornu

Addresses: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 68, Legon, Ghana ' Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 68, Legon, Ghana ' Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 68, Legon, Ghana ' Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

Abstract: This study sought to understand the determinants of market channel choice among smallholder beef cattle farmers in Ghana's forest-savannah transitional zone. Data was collected from 200 farmers through the administration of a structured questionnaire and analysed using a multinomial logit regression model. The results revealed that the producers' level of education, herd size, mode of payment and price for cattle sold positively influence the producers' choice of marketing channel, whereas the quantity beef cattle sold, the reason for production, farmer access to extension services, years of farming experience, membership of a producers association and marketing cost negatively influenced the choice of marketing channel. The role of farmer-based associations, standardisation of the beef cattle trade, provision of market information to the producers, and profiling of the producers based on the basis of their production capacity are critical for the improvement of the businesses of the beef cattle farmers.

Keywords: beef value chain; extension services; Ghana; livestock farming; multinomial logit regression.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVCM.2019.100937

International Journal of Value Chain Management, 2019 Vol.10 No.3, pp.238 - 257

Received: 19 Dec 2018
Accepted: 18 Mar 2019

Published online: 19 Jul 2019 *

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