Agricultural diversification, food self-sufficiency and food security in ghana-the role of infrastructure and institutions

Abstract

Food self-sufficiency has been an important policy objective of many nations, including Ghana. Its importance as a policy priority has diminished over time, as food security became a more appealing policy orientation. Self-sufficiency suggests that a nation produces at least all its food needs, while food security implies the availability and physical access to food by the population, irrespec- tive of whether or not it is produced within the country (Thomson and Metz, 1998). At the household level, economic rationality suggests that resources should be allocated optimally to the production of commodities for which returns are highest. Income generated from trading these commodities could then be used to purchase other food needs. If agricultural diversification is defined as the increasing allocation of household resources to the production of non-staples relative to food staples, then households would diversify, given that the returns to land and labour are higher for the production of non-staples than for food staples (Fafchamps, 1992; von Braun, 1994; Goletti, 1999; Govereh and Jayne, 2003; Joshi et al., 2003; Weinberger and Lumpkin, 2007; Shome, 2009). But it is documented that many farm households, particularly in sub- Saharan Africa (SSA), are subsistent or semi-subsistent producers, which implies an inclination towards self-sufficiency in food production (de Janvry et al., 1991; Finkelshtain and Chalfant, 1991; Fafchamps, 1992; Jayne, 1994; von Braun, 1994, 1995; Govereh and Jayne, 2003; Di Falco and Chavas, 2009).