Impacts of multivalued interventions on maize farmers’ welfare: Evidence from SIPMA development project in Ghana

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted the significance of agricultural development programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa for enhancing production, food security, and farmer welfare. However, these studies frequently investigate the effects of a single intervention rather than a combination of interventions. This study examines the impact of three interventions (credit access, structured market, and entrepreneurial training) on maize yield, food security, food expenditure and non-food expenditure in Ghana. We utilized multivalued inverse probability weighted regression correction, and propensity score matching with data from the Smallholder Inclusive Productivity and Market Access (SIPMA) agricultural development programme on 477 maize farmers. Participation in SIPMA interventions significantly increased maize yields, farm income, food spending, and non-food spending. For smallholder farmers, participation in a combination of input credit provision, structured market, and entrepreneurial training results in the highest yield, farm income, and non-food expenditures, while participation in entrepreneurial training alone results in a lower yield. Our empirical evidence suggests that the interventions should be expanded to other communities because the project's characteristics are distinctive in terms of fostering community engagement and collaboration with local/regional institutions.

Keywords

• Agriculture
• Interventions
• Welfare
• Development
• Multivalued IPWRA
• Ghana