Determinants of Poverty among Major Food Crop Farmers : The Case of Ghana <Article>

This article analyzes the extent and determinants of poverty among farmers who grow five major food crops (cassava, maize, sorghum/millet, rice and yam). Based on national survey data, it was found that incidence of poverty is highest in savanna zone and, among illiterates, males and the married. The depth and severity of poverty follow the ranking of poverty incidence among categories. This implies that social segments with high incidence of poverty have higher costs of eliminating poverty and higher levels of inequality. This study also shows that poverty is influenced by a plethora of factors including household income, gender, education, location and dependency ratio. The following recommendations are made to help reduce poverty: Women groups should be trained and given business loans to help reduce their vulnerability; Social protection programme which links support to the obligation of household heads to enroll children in schools can lessen financial burden of farm families in a more sustainable way; General training in functional literacy, entrepreneurship and management should be promoted to increase farmers' acceptance of productivity-enhancing technical innovations and to make farm families employable in the non-agricultural sector thereby enhancing their incomes; and policymakers should combine zonal and household targeting to effectively identify the poor from the non-poor for any poverty alleviation support that may be forthcoming.