EXAMINING THE NEXUS BETWEEN DRY SEASON VEGETABLE PRODUCTION AND HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN THE UPPER EAST REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

Rates of food insecurity in Ghana have been rising before the onset of COVID-19 and have remained unchanged since then despite the economy's expansion in the 1990s to date. Dryseason commercial vegetable production is one of the people's key activities for survival in the Upper East Region. This study sought to examine the extent and determinants of food insecurity through an econometric estimation with household data from 322 dry-season vegetable farmers in the region. The study revealed that close to half (45.7%) of the sampled farm households are food insecure (FI) while food secure (FS) is 54.3%. FI households have a head count index of 33.33%, a food insecurity gap of 31.20 and a severity of food insecurity of 12.97%. Vegetable income, non-farm employment and own food production have positive marginal effects on households’ calorie availability in the region. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) should provide logistics and capacity-building workshops for the Agricultural Extension Officers (AEOs) to improve their knowledge and skills and ensure their accessibility to dry season vegetable farmers to improve the productivity, increase output and income of farmers to enhance food security in the region.

Keywords

• food insecurity
• dry season vegetables
• upper east region
• calorie availability