Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness
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Item A process evaluation of a home garden intervention(Agriculture & Food Security, 2024) Ritter, T.; Mockshell, J.; Garrett, J.; Ogutu, S.; Asante‑Addo, C.Background Most reviews of nutrition-sensitive programs assess the evidence base for nutrition outcomes with out considering how programs were delivered. Process evaluations can fill this void by exploring how or why impacts were or were not achieved. This mid-term process evaluation examines a home garden intervention implemented in a large-scale, livelihoods improvement program in Odisha, India. The objectives are to understand whether the intervention was operating as planned (fidelity), investigate potential pathways to achieve greater impact, and provide insights to help design future home garden programs. Methodology Data collection and analysis for this theory-driven process evaluation are based on a program impact pathway that shows the fow of inputs, processes, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. Quantitative and qualitative data from focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and a Process Net-Mapping exercise with benefciaries frontline workers, and program management staff. Results Despite a mismatch between the design and implementation (low fidelity), the process evaluation identified positive outputs, outcomes, and impacts on home garden production, consumption, income, health and nutritional outcomes, and women’s empowerment. Flexibility led to greater positive outcomes on nutrition, the adoption of sus‑ tainable agricultural practices and easy-to-understand nutrition models, and the likelihood of the intervention being sustained after the program ends. Conclusions To help food systems in rural settings reduce food insecurity by utilizing more sustainable agricultural practices, we recommend that home garden interventions include instruction on easy-to-understand nutrition models and on how to make natural fertilizer. Finding local solutions like home gardens to help address critical supply issues and food insecurity is paramountItem Implications of crop yield distributions for multiperil crop insurance rating in Ghana: a lasso model application(Agricultural Finance Review, 2024) Addey, K.A.; Jatoe, J.B.D.Purpose – The objective of this paper is to examine crop yield predictions and their implications on MPCI in Ghana. Farmers in developing countries struggle with their ability to deal with agricultural risks. Providing aid for farmers and their households remains instrumental in combatting poverty in Africa. Several studies have shown that correctly understanding and implementing risk management strategies will help in the poverty alleviation agenda. Design/methodology/approach – This study examines the importance of crop yield distributions in Ghana and its implication on multiperil crop insurance (MPCI) rating using the Lasso regression model. A Bonferroni test was employed to test the independence of crop yields across the regions while the Kruskal-Wallis H test was conducted to examine statistical differences in mean yields of crops across the ten regions. The Bayesian information criteria and k-fold cross-validation methods are used to select an appropriate Lasso regression model for the prediction of crop yields. The study focuses on the variability of the threshold yields across regions based on the chosen model. Findings – It is revealed that threshold yields differ significantly across the regions in the country. This implies that the payment of claims will not be evenly distributed across the regions, and hence regional disparities need to be considered when pricing MPCI products. In other words, policymakers may choose to assign respective weights across regions based on their threshold yields. Research limitations/implications – The primary limitation is the unavailability of regional climate data which could have helped in a better explanation of the variation across the regions. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the implications of regional crop yield variations on multiperil crop insurance rating in Ghana.Item Analysis of fishers’ wellbeing in the western region of Ghana(Development in Practice, 2023) Onumah, E.E.; Al-Hassan, R.M.; Ocran, J.; Béné, C.Small-scale fisheries in Ghana are declining in response to the global fisheries crisis. The policies to curb this situation are dependent on the wellbeing of fishers in terms of material condition, quality of life, and transformative strategies for sustainable livelihoods. This paper employs survey data to investigate the wellbeing of fishers, using descriptives, principal-component analysis, and structural equation modelling. The results revealed that the summative effect of material condition and quality of life, and sustainability on fishers’ wellbeing is low. Despite the low ranking of income (lower among men fishers than women fishers) processors), basic necessities, and government support, fishers are still motivated to work but claim that their children may one day be locked out of the industry. This paper addresses the gap in the literature by establishing the need to enhance educational facilities for the children of fishers, while complementing with investments that create job opportunities in the fishing communities. This may eventually reduce dependence on the sea for sustainable fisheries.Item Protocol: The impact of infrastructure on low‐income consumers' nutritious diet, women's economic empowerment, and gender equality in low‐ and middle‐income countries: An evidence and gap map(Campbell Systematic Reviews, 2023) Obeng‐Amoako, G.A.O.; Okyere, C.Y.; Nyan, C.P.; et al.This is the protocol for an evidence and gap map. The objectives are as follows: this evidence and gap map (EGM) aims to identify, map, and provide an overview of the existing evidence and gaps on the impact of different types of physical infrastructure on various outcomes of low-income consumers' nutritious diet, women's economic empowerment, and gender equality in low- and middle-income countries. The specific objectives of the EGM are: (1) identify clusters of evidence that offer opportunities for evidence synthesis and (2) identify gaps in evidence where new studies, research, and evaluations are neededItem The effect of carbon farming training on food security and development resilience in Northern Ghana(Climate and Development, 2024) Okyere, C.Y.; Atta-Ankomah, R.; Asante-Addo, C.; Kornher, L.Carbon farming has recently been advocated for as a climate change and variability mitigation and/or adaptation strategy in global agriculture. In this study, we address an important research question of whether carbon farming training can improve household resilience capacity as well as food security by employing internationally standardized indicators. Household resilience capacity and its components are measured using the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s resilience capacity index while the food security measures used include household and child food insecurity experience scale (FIES and CFIES), food consumption score (FCS) and household dietary diversity score (HDDS). We relied on doubly robust treatment effect estimators to account for potential selection bias and heterogeneity. We find that carbon farming training has no statistically significant effect on overall household resilience capacity. However, we find a large and statistically significant effect on key components of resilience (specifically, access to basic services, assets and social safety nets) and a marginal improvement in adaptive capacity. We also find statistically significant effect on FCS and HDDS but not for the other food security indicators (FIES and CFIES). Overall, the results suggest that agricultural training programs, particularly climate change adaptation capacity building initiatives, could improve important welfare measures in developing countries.Item Typology and performance of inter-organizational relationships among Ghanaian farmers(International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 2021) Adaku, A.A.; Amanor-Boadu, V.This study explored inter-organizational relationships (IOR) between farmers and agri-food processors in Ghana and their relative effect on participating farmers’ performance. The IOR were organized into three broad types: governance (formal/informal); orientation (price, quality, or quantity); and structure (direct-to-buyer). farmer-based organization (FBO)/agent). The study showed that about 44% of farmers participated in IOR. and 72% of them use direct-to-buyer relationships compared to 25% and 5% who use FBO and agents. The total exceeds 100% because some farmers used multiple IOR structures. Likewise, more than half of farmers involved in IOR use multiple orientations, with 29%, 81% and 54% of them using orientations involving quantity, quality, and price specifications, respectively. Formal governance (IOR) accounted for 31% of IOR by governance. On performance, the average farm income of farmers involved in IOR was GHS 3,947, which was 3.1 times higher than non-IOR farmers, and those with formal arrangements had 6.4 times higher average farm income than farmers in informal relationships. IOR with formal governance and quality-price orientation presented positive and statistically significant effects on marginal benefits, while producer demographics and socio-economic characteristics did not. These results provide instruction for policymakers and practitioners in helping inform farmers’ participation in IOR that produces superior outcomes.Item Mapping of community perspectives on land acquisition for biofuel investment in northern Ghana(Land Use Policy, 2024) Kupabado, M.M.; Mensah-Bonsu, A.We apply Q methodology, a model with a qualitative background, albeit with rigorous quantitative analysis, to map community perspectives (concerns, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and perceptions) towards the acquisition of communal land for a biofuel project in northern Ghana. We extracted four community perspectives, in the order of importance as follows: (1) pro-biofuel project, but pessimistic (2) against the biofuel project (pro-environ mental) (3) strong against and (4) optimistic. Taken together, the perspectives suggest the local people believe the biofuel project has no potential to improve their livelihoods, meanwhile, there is a consensus that the project destroyed trees of economic importance and provided poor working conditions for the local employees. We recommend (1) the establishment of enforceable economic and social contracts between the employees, local land users and the biofuel investors (2) direct monetary compensation for the affected communal land users (3) investigation of allegations of late or partial-payment of salaries of the biofuel project’s employees (4) future considerations for acquiring communal land should include broad community consultations and incorporate the local land users’ interests, concerns, and viewpoints and (5) the local bioenergy policy of the government of Ghana must include checks on communal land sale decisions, which directly or indirectly impact the welfare of the people.Item Abnormal pricing in international commodity trading: Evidence from Ghana(International Economics, 2022) Ahene-Codjoe, A.A.; Alu, A.A.; Mehrotra, R.mispricing of international trade in natural resources contributes to significant tax base erosion from developing countries but is difficult to measure using aggregate trade statistics. In this paper, We apply a novel approach motivated by legal rules for trade and transfer, mispricing. to estimate. abnormal pricing in gold and cocoa exports from Ghana, i.e., exports valued outside an assumed arm's length price range that indicates fair market values. Using daily frequency, transaction-level data from Ghana Customs, our results indicate abnormally undervalued exports of gold and cocoa from Ghana equalled USD 8.8 billion in constant prices (base year 2011) or USD 4.1 billion in current prices between 2011 and 2017. Approximately 11% of gold dorm exports and 1% of cocoa bean exports, and 7.2% of cocoa paste exports appear abnormally undervalued. The implied corporate tax base erosion equals USD 2.2 billion in constant prices (base year 2011), corresponding to an average annual decrease of 0.3% in Ghana's tax-to-GDP ratio.Item How healthy and food secure is the urban food environment in Ghana?(World Development Perspectives, 2022) Mockshell, J.; Asante-Addo, C.; Ogutu, S.O.; et al.The importance of the food environment in influencing dietary choices of consumers has been widely acknowledged, but little attention has been paid to the urban food environment in Africa despite the rise in incidence of obesity and other nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases (NR-NCDs). We contribute to the literature on urban food environments by conducting an observational macro-scan of the food environment in three cities – Accra, Cape Coast, and Koforidua – with a view to unravelling the nature of the urban food environment in Ghana. We examine the food environment based on two dimensions of food security – avail ability and accessibility (affordability) – and also assess the extent to which foods are processed. The results show that all four food categories – unprocessed, processed, processed culinary, and ultra-processed – are available, accessible, and affordable. Ultra-processed foods are just as highly available, accessible, and/or affordable as unprocessed foods. The results also show that processed foods account for the larger share of all foods in Ghana’s urban food environment, and ultra-processed foods account for more than 30% of all processed foods. Overall, these results suggest that physical and economic access to food are not major constraints in urban Ghana. This is certainly a welcome finding from a food policy perspective; however, the high availability and accessibility of ultra-processed foods has serious potential health implications. Regulation will be needed to prevent over consumption of ultra-processed foods and the resulting increase in obesity and other NR-NCDs.Item Gendered health effects of cooking fuel technologies in southern Ghana(Technology in Society, 2024) Okyere, C.Y.; Abu, B.M.; Asante-Addo, C.; Kodua, T.T.The introduction of clean cooking technologies in many developing countries ensures environmental quality and improved well-being through reduction in indoor air pollution. This study examines the adoption of cooking fuel technologies and its effect on health outcomes using panel data from two districts in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. The inverse probability weighting regression adjustment (IPWRA) approach was used to examine the effect of cooking fuel technologies on health outcomes. The empirical results show that factors such as tenancy, kitchen design, assets, gender, education, access to internet and tarred roads influence the adoption of cooking fuel technologies, including clean cooking fuels. The study finds that clean cooking fuels decrease female illness incidence but not male illness incidence, with large improvement for adults. The findings suggest that policies and programs aimed at promoting clean cooking fuel technologies can significantly improve well-being of females in developing countries