Food Security in Northern Ghana: Does Income from Shea Based Livelihoods Matter?
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
Shea is an important resource that support livelihoods and food
security in northern Ghana. This study assesses the contribution of
shea’s contribution to collectors’ income and food security. Shea
income contributes about 21% to total income. Using The Food
Consumption Score (FCS) to determine household food security status
of shea collector households, majority of households (75.3%) were
found to lack high food security. The Ordered Logit Regression (OLR)
model was used to estimate the effect of shea income on household
food security. The effect of shea income on food security was minimal.
Income obtained from combining shea collection, farming and butter
production has the highest effect on household food security. Other
factors found to positively affect food security were attainment of
basic education, farm size, picking nuts from family field, number of
household’s food contributors while household size had an inverse
effect on food security. The study recommends the encouragement of
positive gender relations that allow women to have access to shea
resources and advocates training to build capacity of collectors in
other livelihood activities.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Shea Collector Households, Food Security, Shea Income, Ordered Logit Model, Food Consumption Score, Northern Ghana