Ghana’s Planting for Food and Jobs Programme: A Look at the Role of Capability in Farmers’ Participation

Abstract

An objective interpersonal comparison of wellbeing requires that people’s capabilities are considered. This paper operationalises Sen’s capability concept in maize-based farming systems and assesses how it influences farmers’ participation in the Planting for Food and Jobs programme in the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District of the Northern Region, Ghana. We used data from 315 households collected through multi-stage sampling procedure. Capability was quantified using factor analysis, while its determinants were identified through multiple linear regression analysis. Afterwards, an instrumental variable probit model was used to examine the effect of capability on programme participation. We identified two attributes of capability, which were labelled as human capability and institutional capability. T hese capability attributes are significantly enhanced by availability of markets and good roads. Our results provide evidence that the two attributes of capability influence farmers’ participation in the Planting for Food and Jobs programme. The findings indicate that, for effective participation in agricultural interventions, farmers’ capabilities need to be enhanced. This could be achieved through the provision of, and/or improvement in infrastructure, including roads and markets in remote production centres.

Keywords:

• Agricultural interventions
• Factor analysis
• Planting for Food and Jobs
• Sen’s capability
• Northern Ghana

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers which has brought improvement on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Isaac G. K. Ansah http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5071-6224

Notes

1 For the distance measures, we adopted a slightly different approach because most of our respondents were unable to provide distances in miles or kilometres, but found it relatively accurate to provide these in terms of walking time. We therefore asked them to provide the approximate walking times taken to reach their farms, access roads and input or output markets in minutes, learning from Roberts, Kc, and Rastogi (2006).

2 The unrotated solution is the first result from the exploratory factor analysis when the latent factors are first extracted. The unrotated solution is often difficult to interpret. To clarify and simplify the interpretation of which variables contribute to which latent factor, the solution is rotated. There are many rotation methods, but we chose the oblimin to allow for factor correlations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Isaac G. K. Ansah

Isaac Gershon Kodwo Ansah is a lecturer at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Faculty of Agribusiness and Applied Economics (FAAE), University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, Ghana. He holds a master degree from Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands), and is currently studying for his PhD in the same institution. Isaac worked as a research assistant and intern, respectively, with Crops Research Institute and Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, prior to his position as a lecturer in the university. His research interests involve agricultural and applied economics, and econometric studies that have agricultural and food policy implications. Specifically, Isaac’s interest borders on the nexus among shocks, coping/adaptation responses, resilience and food security in developing countries. This quadripartite linkage requires an interest in how improvement of people’s capabilities foster the achievement of these goals; this captures Isaac’s interest as well.

Munkaila Lambongang

Munkaila Lambongang holds a BSc (honors) degree in Agribusiness, with limited specialisation in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UDS. He is currently pursuing a master degree in Agricultural Economics at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics of the same university. Prior to commencing his Mphil programme, Munkaila had worked as a teaching assistant at the same department where he now pursues his master degree. As a research enthusiast, Munkaila has a strong interest in studying the relationship between the enhancement of people’s capabilities and human development. Specifically, his interest borders on tying capability enhancements to food security in poor and emerging economies.

Samuel A. Donkoh

Samuel A. Donkoh (PhD) is an Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Agribusiness and Applied Economics (FAAE), UDS. He is also a Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Chartered Economists. He holds BA (Hons) Econs, Dip Ed and MPhil in Economics from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana; and PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Reading, UK. He has 20 over years of university teaching experience and over 80 publications including textbooks. His research work falls in the domain of Agricultural Economics and Applied Microeconomics. Specifically, his research interests include Agricultural technology adoption (e.g. climate change coping and adaptation strategies) economic efficiency, poverty and impact assessment. Over the years Prof. Donkoh has worked with a lot of farmers’ and women’s groups as well as several national and international organisations, such as MoFA, UNU, UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, FAO, UNIDO JICA and JIRCAS. He is a strong advocate of green economy.