Farm households’ welfare and smallholder rice production in northern Ghana: Does all-year-round cultivation make any difference?

Subject Areas : Rural and Agricultural Sociology

Alhassan  Andani ¹ (Department of Food Security and Climate Change, Faculty of Food Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, University for Development Studies, Post Office Box TL 1882, Tamale, Ghana.)
Mohammed  Abdulai ² (Department of Food Security and Climate Change, Faculty of Food Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, University for Development Studies, Post Office Box TL 1882, Tamale, Ghana.)

Received: 2023-04-08 Accepted : 2023-06-30 Published : 2023-06-30

Keywords: Food Security, Northern Ghana, Endogenous Switching Regression, Food Consumption Expenditure, Farm household welfare,

Abstract :

The study used cross-sectional data collected from a randomly selected sample of 320 households in important rice growing areas in northern Ghana. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of all-year round rice production on the welfare of farm households. Endogenous Switching Regression techniques were used to estimate the true welfare effect of all-year round rice production. Descriptive results showed a mean distance from the food expenditure poverty line of GHS46.17 with a significant difference between participants’ (GHS16.03) and non-participants (GHS60.46). With only 6.3% of all-year-round rice producers being poor, as high as 23.6% seasonal rice producers are poor. Important factors contributing to higher household food consumption expenditure are farm size, non-farm work, contract farming and education whilst household size tends to reduce it. The study found that the observed per capita food expenditure (GHS 364.00) of farmers participating in all-year round rice production is much higher than their counterfactual per capita food expenditure of GHS 179.79, suggesting that engaging in all-year round rice production has a significant positive impact on household food consumption expenditure in northern Ghana where the bulk of the country’s rice is produced. The finding implies that all-year round cultivation of rice has a potential role in improving rural household welfare as higher consumption expenditure translates into enhanced food security and lower poverty status of farm households. The study recommends the expansion in irrigation infrastructure in northern Ghana to encourage more farm families to adopt all-year round cultivation of rice.

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