EXAMINING CONSTRAINTS TO POVERTY REDUCTION AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN SELECTED DISTRITCS IN NORTHERN REGION, GHANA

Abstract

The study examined constraints to poverty reduction among smallholder farmers in five selected districts of the Northern Region of Ghana. In spite of several intervention programmes to alleviate poverty in the study area, the poverty menace in the region continues to deteriorate. A mixed method approach was employed alongside cross-sectional design and exploratory procedure to gain a wider view of poverty in the study area. Probability methods were used to select 420 smallholder farmers from 30 farming communities in 5 districts of the Region. Fifteen (15) district agricultural officers, ten (10) opinion leaders and local experts, and four (4) poverty reduction civil society organisations were purposively selected and interviewed. The study found that the most influential factors affecting poverty in the study area were; number of household labour, years of farm experience of heads of household, availability of assistance to farmers, accessibility to farm lands, gender of heads of household and number of dependants. The study also established that the factors militating against poverty reduction in the Region were; unfavourable colonial administrative legacy, inadequate financial capital, rural urban drift of the youth, violent conflicts, unfavourable climate, poor fertility, and price volatility of agricultural output. The study recommends public sector investment in rural infrastructure, effective collaboration between government, CSOs and local people through the bottom-up approach to rural development and deliberate policy interventions to bridge the development gap between the north and south of the country.