Welfare dynamics of innovations among agricultural households in Ghana: Implication for poverty reduction.

To reduce the high incidence of poverty in rural households, agricultural modernization using innovations has been pursued by governments and actors in the agricultural innovation system (AIS). This study analyzed how agricultural innovations and farmer-actor interactions in the AIS contribute to poverty outcomes among agricultural households in Ghana. Data used was the Ghana socio-economic panel survey data with 891 and 2595 observations for cocoa and maize households, respectively. The multinomial endogenous treatment effect model with instrumental variables was employed for the analysis. Adopting digital technologies in combination with other innovations, and having stronger farmer-actor interactions in the innovation system were associated with non-poor outcome in maize-growing households, who were poorer compared to cocoa-growing households. Innovations that consistently increased food security in both crop systems were associated with non-poor outcomes. The findings of the study highlight the need for governments and stakeholders to prioritize agricultural digitalization, encourage the adoption of multiple innovations and focus on food security-improving interventions as strategies to addressing rural poverty reduction.

Farmers' response to COVID-19 disruptions: The case of cropland allocation decision.

This study provides new evidence on the determining factors of cropland allocation decisions within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by using the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model on 309 farm households. The results reveal that socio-economic, production, institutional, and political factors significantly influence the choice and size of cropland allocation decisions among legumes and cereals. Beyond these factors, we find that COVID-19 education increases land area allocated to staples while perception of disruptive effect of COVID-19 on agriculture positively correlates with the area under commercial crop (soybean) production. The implications of the results are discussed.

Perceptions of COVID-19 shocks and adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in Ghana.

Most studies on the novel COVID-19 pandemic have focused mainly on human health, food systems, and employment with limited studies on how farmers implement sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) in response to the pandemic. This study examines how perceptions of COVID-19 shocks influence the adoption of SAPs among smallholder farmers in Ghana. We find that perceptions of COVID-19 shocks influence the probability and intensity of SAPs adoption. Secondly, households who anticipated COVID-19 shocks recorded heterogeneity effects in the combinations (complementarity and substitutability) of SAPs. Farmers who anticipated an increase in input prices and loss of income due to COVID-19 recorded the highest complementarity association between pesticide and zero tillage while farmers who expected limited market access reported the highest complementarity between mixed cropping and mulching. Farmers who projected a decrease in output prices complements pesticides with mixed cropping. The findings suggest that understanding the heterogeneity effects in the combinations of SAPs due to COVID-19 shocks is critical to effectively design, target and disseminate sustainable intensification programs in a post-pandemic period.

Parental Time Poverty, Child Work and School Attendance in Ghana.

This study examines the relationship between parental time poverty, child work, and school attendance in Ghana using data from the sixth and seventh rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS6 and GLSS7). Results of the analysis indicate an increasing decline in child enrolment in public schools (from 9% to 6%) among time poor household heads. In addition, parental time poverty increases children's walking hours to and from school and private school enrolment. We observed heterogeneity of parental time poverty on child work in relation to the location of households and gender disaggregation. Child work and school attendance-reducing effect of parental time poverty is mainly prevalent among male children but mixed for location. Our result is robust to the alternative estimation method of addressing endogeneity and further shows that household income is the primary channel through which time poverty influences child work and school attendance. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12187-022-09926-4 10.1007/s12187-022-09926-4.

Climate-smart cowpea adoption and welfare effects of comprehensive agricultural training programs.

Agricultural training programs remain one of the primary mechanisms for disseminating modern and climate-smart technologies with the aim to improve the welfare outcomes of smallholder farmers. With persistent low agricultural productivity in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), the content, effectiveness, and mode of delivery of training programs remain a debate. In this paper, we examine the adoption, productivity, and income effects of participating in a novel comprehensive agricultural training program (CATP) involving cowpea farmers in northern Ghana by using the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model. The CATP requires farmers to complete a set of modules on good agronomic practices to gain informal certification. The results indicate that participating in the CATP increases the adoption of climate-smart cowpea varieties, productivity, and cowpea income by 75, 15, and 24% points, respectively, compared to their mean levels. These positive welfare effects of participating in the CATPs confirm the need to increase capacity-enhancing activities in agricultural development projects, and design mechanisms to eliminate barriers to participation among rural farm households.

Welfare effect of organic fertilizer use in Ghana.

Most soils in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are substantially degraded and are in need of restoration to enhance sustainable food production. This is a harder problem given that population is projected to increase with a corresponding increase in demand for food. Organic fertilizer can improve soil health by reducing the rate of nutrient leaching. However, there are limited studies on the economic effect of organic fertilizer use in SSA. Lack of in-depth understanding of the economics of organic fertilizer use and the welfare effect has the tendency to mislead policy. This paper employs the double selection and propensity score matching techniques to analyze the welfare impacts of organic fertilizer use. The results show that organic fertilizer use significantly increases the log of productivity and crop income by 1.43 and US$132 respectively and reduce total household expenditure, food expenditure and poverty by US$174, US$58, and 8% respectively. Disaggregation of the results based on landholdings and household size suggest that adopters of organic fertilizer with large farm size and household members recorded the lowest probability of being poor. Findings of this study demonstrate that the gains in the use of organic fertilizer can be consolidated with complementary input support and increased market participation.