IMPACT OF ZAI TECHNOLOGY ON FARMERS’ WELFARE: EVIDENCE FROM NORTHERN GHANA

Abstract

Zai is a technology employed to rehabilitate degraded farmlands and to restore soil fertility to the benefit of farmers dwelling mostly on drylands. It serves as a water-harvesting mechanism and thus helps to reduce the amount of water that would have been lost through run-off. However, the potential roles of this technology in enhancing rural welfare has not been adequately explored. This study identified the determinants of farm households’ decision to adopt Zai technology as well as its impact on their welfare using randomly collected cross-sectional data from northern Ghana. Results from the probit model indicated that adoption of Zai technology was influenced by a different set of farmer-specific, farm-specific, and supply-side policy variables. Using different propensity score techniques, namely; propensity score matching, regression adjustment, and inverse probability weighting, the study revealed that adoption of Zai technology leads to significant gains in consumption expenditure, consumption expenditure per capita, and household income. The paper concludes that Zai technology could be a tool in promoting food security in the Ghanaian economy and, thus contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG I and II) on curbing hunger and poverty in developing countries like Ghana.