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Abstract
Despite the clear synergy between food security and politics, economic policy frameworks have not given adequate attention to the political economy of income diversification as a means of improving food security. To determine the drivers of rural income diversification for enhancing food security in Ghana, the study analyzed the income diversification activities of 500 rural households using cross-sectional data. Results from the Count index, Simpson’s diversification index (SDI), Tobit, Poisson and multiple linear regression, revealed that the long-term income diversification measure proxied by the Number of Economic Activities (NEA), undertaken by rural households ranged from 1 to 10. Moreover, using the short-term income diversification measure, the Simpson diversification index, averaged 79.6% with a range of 41% to 89%. The findings suggest that the average NEA required to improve food security in Northern region was 7. Although total expenditure on food increased with increasing SDIs, diversification beyond 89% led to a decline in food security. The relationship between income diversification and the age of respondents also resembled a U-shaped curve implying that age impacts negatively on income diversification opportunities in the initial stages. A possible explanation is that people below a certain age are predominately dependent on relatives for their economic livelihoods. However, once they reached a certain age or turning point, there was increasing income diversification. Technical education was found to be the most important variable affecting the Simpson Index with a standardised parameter value of 1.171, which was three times more influential in diversification than its nearest rival variable, formal education (0.330).
REVIEWING EDITOR:
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Dagomba and Nanumba ethnic kingdoms of Northern Ghana for their invaluable assistance in conducting this research. The University of Ghana’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, the CSIR-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI), and the ACDI/VOCA Ghana are also thanked for their supervisory support in carrying out this research. Prof. Irene Susan Egyir, Dean of Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Kwabena Asomanin Anaman, Dr. Yaw Osei-Asare, and Dr. Wilhelmina Quaye were particularly consulted in the design of this study. Their feedback improved the study tremendously. Finally, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their insights and comments on the earlier versions of this article. Last but not least, we are grateful to Prof. Williams Ohemeng, Head of Department of Economics and Applied Mathematics of the School of Technology and Social Sciences (SOTSS), GIMPA, for providing academic leadership and support in the months of drafting this paper. Mrs. Claudia Asante, our dedicated typist is also acknowledged for her enormous contribution to the success of this work.
Author contributions
Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft. Zubeiru Salifu: Writing- review and editing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
Datasets used for analysis are available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu
Dr. Abdul-Nasser Salifu Gamel is a Lecturer in the Economics and Statistics Department of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in the Faculty of Social Sciences. His research interests are in Economic and Social Policy Analysis, Development Economics, Climate-Resilient Food Systems, Gender & Youth Studies. He instructs university students in Food and Energy Economics, Quantitative Methods, and Economic Policy. Gamel Abdul Nasser has extensive cross-disciplinary expertise in both academia and business. He has provided consulting services to several public entities on a local and international font.
Zubeiru Salifu
Mr. Zubeiru Salifu (PhD candidate) is the Finance Manager at the ACDI/VOCA Ghana office. The organization is focused on developing agricultural value chains for agro-industries in Africa. He has been a crucial specialist for the Feed the Future USAID/ADVANCE initiative. He has been directly involved with food security programme implementation in Africa. Mr. Zubeiru is a PhD candidate in Finance, University of Ghana Business School. He has a rich experience, corporate finance, and advisory services in portfolio management. His Specialty is in private equity, venture capital, and impact investment industry in Ghana.