The Nexus Between and Enhancement of Youth’s Involvement in Agriculture: The Case of Eastern Region, Ghana

This paper examines youth’s involvement and the factors hindering youth’s involvement in agriculture. The main objective is to access the engagement of Ghanaian youth in the Eastern Region in agriculture and the figure out factors hindering the youth’s involvement in agriculture. The paper finds answers to the following questions; what really induce the youth to enter into agriculture? What conditions prevents youth from engaging in agriculture? Qualitative research techniques (interviews) were used. The choice model as well as the probit model was used in this paper. It was revealed that most of the youth engaged in agriculture are male as compared to female. Also, most of the youth are not interested in agriculture because of lack of credit facilities, limited startup capital, poor faming technology, use of primitive tools, soil degradation and limited farm lands. It was further revealed the youth migrate to the urban areas to search for job, good industries to work with, good social amenities, good education, and access to loans and enjoy high standard of living in the urban areas. Attention should be given to the factors leading to youth migrating to the urban areas. In addition, the limitations facing the youth in agriculture must be examined. Keywords: Agriculture, Job choice, Migration, Unemployment, Youth. DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/9-10-03 Publication date:May 31st 201

The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Employees’ Loyalty and Commitment: A Comparative Study Among Some Selected Sectors in Ghana

Job satisfaction is one of the vital needs of a most employees in any well-structured organization and vital to all corporate management. It is believed that the prospect business will depend on the level of employees’ satisfactions. The drive of the study is to find whether job satisfaction has impact on the employees’ loyalty and commitment. The study utilized descriptive and exploratory research design. The study population was the entire employees in the selected sectors in Ghana. A total of (150) employee from the mining, financial and manufacturing industries were sampled. Multiple regression analysis was used to predict the unknown value of a variable from the known value of variable also called predictors. According to findings of this study, the model shows a significant and positive relationship, individual factor contribute to the satisfaction but does not have a strong impact on job satisfaction in all sectors. The study again portrayed that, there was at least a positively significant relation between the human resources practices’, job satisfaction and loyalty/commitment in various sectors. The study concluded that job satisfaction showed a significant impact on loyalty and commitment in the manufacturing and mining sector and there was at least significant relationship between the human resource practices, job satisfaction and loyalty/commitment in various sectors which validates the various theories and studies. The study also recommends that, stakeholders of the sectors should pay more attention to employees’ loyalty and commitment as this will enhance the improvement and help survive the current competition within these sectors. Keywords: Ghana, Job satisfaction, Employee’s Loyalty, Commitment

The Influence of Risk Management on Organizational Efficiency: A Study of Access Bank Ghana Limited

The study investigates the influence of risk management on organizational efficiency. The research was done in Ghana, in particular Access Bank Ghana Ltd (UPSA Branch) as the case study. The objectives of the study were aimed at understanding of risk management, knowing the potency of risk identification, risk assessment and analysis, risk monitoring and controlling with it impact on organizational efficiency. Simple random sampling was used to select fifteen respondents. The research instruments majorly used included a set of questionnaires for respondents. The findings of the study multiple linear regression show that risk monitoring as an element of risk management was a positive relationship of 0.555(55.5%) and significant predictor with to organizational efficiency of (β=0.733, t (15) =3.398, p<0.050). The ANOVA test for the fitness of the model was also positive and significant and the study model was accepted. Correlation matrix was estimated using Pearson correlation to check the positive and strong association between risk identification, understanding of risk and risk monitoring. The findings established strong positive relationship between them. The study concluded that the bank assesses its risks by using quantitative and qualitative methods. The study recommended that a method for identifying, assessing, analyzing and measuring the key business risks in Access Bank Ghana Ltd be make available to all employees. Keywords: Risk management, Organizational efficiency DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/10-10-15 Publication date:May 31st 201

Agricultural Credit Accessibility Determinants: Evidence from Ghanaian Smallholder Farmers

Agricultural credit is an essential input along with modern technology for increased in farm productivity hence serves as an intervention to eradicate rural poverty and increase in agricultural growth. It is believed that smallholder farmers growth in farm production will depend on the availability of agricultural credit. The study assessed on the heterogeneous effect of the factors on the source of agricultural credit (formal and informal) and the gender composition. The study utilized the quantitative research design, a total of four hundred (400) participants were randomly sampled from 4 selected districts and municipalities in the Eastern region of Ghana (Asuogyaman, West-Akim, Suhum and Birim South). A statistical test like the binary logistics regression model was used to predict whether or not smallholder farmers’ access to agricultural credit in the formal and informal source of credit and the gender composition is influenced by the determinants considered for the study. According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that a lot of factors influence the smallholder accessibility to agricultural credit. The model showed a significant relationship between the determinant and accessibility of agricultural credit. This asserts that smallholder farmers’ accessibility of agricultural credit depends on these determinants for the purpose and the study area. The study, therefore, suggests that suppliers, borrowers and other interested stakeholders should be able to improve and intervene in the financial inclusion as well as that stakeholders in the agricultural industry such as MOFA, NGOs, FAO etcetera should include in their sensitization programs ways of enhancing farmers to adopt better farm management practices since they are variables influencing farmers used of agricultural credit

Resource-use efficiency in maize production: the case of smallholder farmers in Ghana

This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency with which smallholder maize farmers use their input resources such as land, labor, capital, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and improved seed in maize production. The study used the multi-stage sampling technique to collect cross-sectional data from 600 smallholder maize producers from the northern, Brong-Ahafo, eastern, and central regions of Ghana. This study employed the marginal value product (MVP) to marginal factor cost (MFC) ratio (MVP/MFC) of the input resources. The results revealed an increased return to scale, meaning smallholder maize farmers in the pooled sample and the studied regions should enlarge their production scale by about 3.2%, 2.2%, 7.6%, 6.8%, and 2.8%, respectively, to maximize productivity. The results also revealed that resource inputs like fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, improved seed, and land were underutilized. Therefore, these resources need to be increased if smallholder maize farmers in the pooled sample want to be efficient in their production. Labor and capital were over-utilized and needed to be reduced to increase efficiency in the farmers' maize production