Maize production is of critical importance to smallholder farmers in Ghana. Various factors limit the productivity of smallholder maize farming systems undergirded by the lack of capital for critical investments both at the farm and at national policy levels. Using a value chain approach, this diagnostic study explains how a complex configuration of actor interaction within an institutionally and agro-ecologically challenged value chain leads to the enduring absence of maize farming credit support. We find a cycle of credit rationing resulting from value chain challenges such as agro-ecological uncertainties, inadequate GAPs training, weak farmer groups and market insecurity. This condition is sustained by an interplay between mistrust, insufficient information across the value chain and inadequate control strategies in the maize credit system. We argue that Digital Platforms (DPs) show potential to help overcome some information and communication gaps and related uncertainties that impede traditional value chain credit arrangements. This is promising in terms of aiding awareness and coordinated responsiveness to agro-ecological farm conditions and the development of farming records databases. Thus, DPs could generate new networks and forms of cooperation in the maize value chain in this regard. As a tool for mediating trust in value chain credit cooperation, strategic use of these DP contributions could help initiate an entry point for recalibration of trust perceptions. Significant considerations and improvements are however needed to harness DPs effectively in mediating trust for maize credit provision, not least being farmer digital inclusion in DP implementation, effective intermediation and network governance arrangements and digital contributions towards cost-effective agro-ecological controls in the erratic maize farming context. This approach to trust building should therefore not be viewed as a quick fix but as a process of trial and error, and learning by doing.

玉米生产对加纳小农户至关重要。由于缺乏用于农场和国家政策层面的重要投资的资金，各种因素限制了小农玉米种植系统的生产力。这项诊断研究使用价值链方法，解释了在受到制度和农业生态挑战的价值链中，参与者互动的复杂配置如何导致持久缺乏玉米种植信贷支持。我们发现由于价值链挑战（例如农业生态不确定性，GAP培训不足，农民群体薄弱和市场不安全）而导致的信贷配给周期。不信任，整个价值链上的信息不足以及玉米信贷系统中的控制策略不足之间的相互作用会维持这种状况。我们认为，数字平台（DP）具有潜力，可以克服一些信息和通信方面的差距以及阻碍传统价值链信贷安排的相关不确定性。就提高对农业生态农场条件的认识和协调响应以及发展农业记录数据库而言，这是有希望的。因此，DP可以在这方面在玉米价值链中产生新的网络和合作形式。作为调解对价值链信贷合作中信任的工具，这些DP贡献的战略性使用可以帮助重新建立信任感的切入点。但是，为了有效利用发展平台来调解对玉米信贷供应的信任，需要进行重大考虑和改进，尤其是将农民数字化纳入发展平台的实施中，有效的中介和网络治理安排，以及在不稳定的玉米种植环境中对具有成本效益的农业生态控制的数字贡献。因此，不应将这种建立信任的方法视为快速解决方案，而应将其视为反复试验和边做边学的过程。