Soybean production has been widely promoted in sub-Saharan Africa as a means of improving rural household income. Numerous studies point to poor adoption levels, low yield levels, and limited profitability among smallholder farmers. Poor performance of soybean among smallholders generates numerous hypotheses as to the root causes. One logical cause is low prices, which result from anecdotes from the field, especially among producers and policymakers. In this study, the first of its kind that we are aware of, analyzes regional soybean prices over time across six key growing and commercial regions of Ghana. We employ cointegration and multivariate vector error correction model to measure the level of international and inter-market integration and performance. The results show regional and international integration as well as Granger Causality results consistent with the local supply-demand context. Specifically, the international market Granger causes Kumasi, Bolgatanga, and Wa markets, while the Tamale and Kumasi, serve as the leading production and demand markets, respectively. The results of the study provide evidence that prices do perform well in Ghana and are not a major source of weak adoption and low levels of profitability among smallholder soybean farmers.

中文翻译：

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评估加纳区域大豆价格的表现

撒哈拉以南非洲广泛推广了大豆生产，以此作为提高农村家庭收入的一种手段。大量研究表明，小农户的收养水平低，单产水平低以及获利能力有限。在小农户中大豆表现不佳产生了许多有关根本原因的假设。一个合理的原因是价格低廉，这是由于该领域的轶事，尤其是生产者和政策制定者之间的轶事造成的。在这项研究中，我们了解到的第一个此类研究分析了加纳六个主要种植区和商业区随时间推移的区域大豆价格。我们采用协整和多元矢量误差校正模型来衡量国际和市场间集成与绩效的水平。结果表明，区域和国际一体化以及格兰杰因果关系结果与当地供需情况相符。具体而言，国际市场Granger导致了库马西，波尔加坦加和Wa邦市场，而塔马利和库马西分别是主要的生产和需求市场。该研究结果提供了证据，证明加纳的价格表现良好，并且不是小农大豆种植者采用率低和获利水平低的主要来源。