ABSTRACT
This study sought to investigate the determinants of participating in charcoal production and trade as well as explore the marketing strategies used by charcoal value chain actors and the challenges confronting the charcoal business. A multistage sampling approach was employed to sample 120 respondents in five communities in Ahafo Ano South District. Descriptive statistics, binary probit regression and qualitative approaches were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that education, household size, marital status, ethnicity, farm size, proximity to the production site and regulations on charcoal production are the significant determinant of charcoal production with diverse effects. Also, gender, education, marital status, ethnicity, the quantity of charcoal produced, cost of packaging material, FBO membership, availability of storeroom, regulation of charcoal production, and ready market are the determinants of charcoal marketing. The qualitative discussion revealed that charcoal producers and traders utilise a couple of marketing strategies. Thus, pricing strategies such as pan seasonal, pan territorial, cost plus pricing and competitive pricing are all used by the respondents. Also, charcoal is packaged into different sizes and weight which ranges from mini bag, maxi bag and jumbo bags. Again, the margin analysis indicated that retailers make more margins than the other authors in the charcoal value chain. Averagely, retailers make 28.30 per 50 kg bag when dealing directly with farmers. The most pressing challenges faced by the respondents are levies paid, the tedious nature of charcoal production and trade, limited access to credit, lack of government support, limited transport system and lack of storage facilities. It is therefore recommended that other tribes in the producing areas need to be educated on the potential fortunes in charcoal production to orient them towards engaging in the venture. Moreover, investment should be channelled towards developing charcoal markets and also improving accessibility by improving road networks and making available means of transport to the producing areas to aid market access.
ABSTRACT
Using a panel data of BRICS economies, this study looks at how formal institutions have influenced various types of entrepreneurship. The study concentrated mainly on the following formal institutional factors: fiscal freedom, business freedom, property rights, financial freedom, labour freedom, and investment freedom. For the opportunity entrepreneurship, the result is not statistically significant. With the exception of business freedom, the remaining institutional factors have negative relationship with opportunity entrepreneurship. Fiscal freedom and business freedom show negative significant relationship with necessity entrepreneurship. The result also shows that business freedom has a negative significant effect on female opportunity entrepreneurship. The study further reveals that fiscal freedom, business freedom and financial freedom have a negative significant effect on men necessity entrepreneurship. Population growth has a positive effect on all categories of entrepreneurship whiles unemployment contributes negatively to all categories of entrepreneurship.
