NONFARM ACTIVITIES AND FOOD SECURITY IN GHANA

Abstract

A fundamental factor of household food security is economic access to food which can be realized through income. Development strategies emphasize the importance of nonfarm income in ensuring access to food, reducing malnutrition, and smoothening consumption, thereby reducing household vulnerability to food insecurity. However, participation in formal and informal nonfarm economic activities can have a varied effect on household welfare. Therefore, the paper analysed the determinants of participation in formal and informal nonfarm activities and their effects on household food security. The study was conducted using a cross sectional, national household data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey Round 7 (GLSS7) collected in 2016-17. The study used data from 4,120 farming households selected through a multi-staged process who undertake formal andlor informal non farm economic activities. Multinomial Endogenous Treatment Effect (METE) model, a two-stage estimation process by Deb and Trivedi (2006) was used to analyse the determinants of formal and informal non-farm activities and the determinants of food security. Finally, Propensity Score Matching was used to estimate the effects of participation in nonfarm activities on households' food security. The drivers of food security are location, sex, age, marital status, household size, education, farm size, access to credit, total crop value, polygamous family, ownership of fridge, tropical livestock unit and agro-ecological zone. The study also revealed that location farm household, education, remittances, ownership of bank account and ownership of phones positively affect participation in nonfarm activities. The result shows that participation in formal and informal non farm activities increases per capita consumption expenditure by 10% and 9.7%, respectively. The government, through its flagship program; one district one factory should provide training and employment for farmers to improve their welfare.