Planting for food and jobs participation and its impact on maize productivity in Ghana: implications for research and policy

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of the study area.

Table 1. Estimated maize production in the study area.

Region	MoFA stated area planted (Ha)	Observed yields per hectare	Total production (MT) estimate
Northern	110,000	4.5 MT reported by some outgrower operations. Average 2.1 MT/ha	230,000
Upper East	45,600	Yields of 1.5 MT/ha reported and assumed average	57,000
Upper West	38,000	<0.7 MT/ha reported in Jirapa. Average of 0.8 MT/ha	40,000

Source: USAID (2022).

Table 2. Regional distribution of sampled maize farmers.

Region	District	Villages (2 per district)	Maize farmers (32 per village)
Northern	2	4	128
Upper East	2	4	128
Upper West	2	4	128
Total	6	12	384

Source: Survey data, 2023.

Note. Table 2 shows 384 as the calculated sample size. However, due to 14 mis-specified data, the sample size of 370 is subsequently used for analysis. Financial constraint affected the collection of additional data above the minimum sample size of 384.

Table 3. Districts with their respective villages sampled for the study.

Region	Districts	Villages
Northern	Karaga and Kpandai	Karaga (Pishigu and Tong) Kpandai (Bankamba and Nkanchina)
Upper East	Bolgatanga East and Binduri	Bolgatanga East (Yorogo and Kumbosigo) Binduri (Binduri and Kaadi)
Upper West	Nadowli-Kaleo and Wa East	Nadowli-Kaleo (Jaang and Sombo) Wa East (Bulinga and Darabateng)

Source: Survey data, 2023.

Table 4. Descriptive statistics of variables by participation status.

Variables	Participants (N = 218)	Non-participants (N = 152)	p-Value
Outcome variables
Maize productivity	4969.430 (59,521.670)	3617.100 (25678.370)	0.000***
Farmers’ income	14,574.430 (49,192.430)	13,493.040 (20579.550)	0.031***
Independent variables
Age	42.908 (10.777)	42.878 (10.222)	0.984
Sex	0.908 (0.289)	0.739 (0.442)	0.002***
Farming experience	18.967 (10.167)	7.877 (3.424)	0.000***
Household size	2.748 (1.954)	2.739 (1.878)	0.977
Marital status	0.858 (0.350)	0.739 (0.442)	0.040**
Education	4.692 (3.490)	0.096 (0.710)	0.000***
Total farm size	10.518 (5.664)	14.054 (13.288)	0.011***
Access to credit	0.142 (0.350)	0.836 (0.373)	0.000***
Cooperative membership	0.958 (0.201)	0.192 (0.396)	0.000***
Extension service	0.975 (0.157)	0.123 (0.331)	0.000***
Off-farm income	0.875 (0.332)	0.739 (0.442)	0.017**
Farm distance	29.325 (10.864)	41.739 (12.574)	0.000***

Notes: Standard deviations are in parenthesis. ***p < 0.01 and **p < 0.05.

Table 5. PSM estimates of PFJ participation.

Matching algorithms	Maize productivity			Maize income
	ATT	Std. error	T-value	ATT	Std. error	T-value
Nearest neighbor matching	3899.896	2687.852	8.016***	14852.506	9880.403	1.503*
Radius matching	3910.340	2394.307	7.782***	14135.630	2056.843	7.845***
Kernel matching	3921.398	2214.312	7.250***	14760.819	14358.612	1.028
Stratification matching	3913.960	2343.142	2.06**	15319.238	809.686	21.390***
	ATT	Robust Std. error	p-Value	ATT	Robust Std. error	p-Value
IPWRA	3815.936	1821.659	0.041**	14845.432	8769.854	0.000***

Source: Author’s computation based on field data, 2023.

Notes: Average weight/bag of maize is 100 kg and the average number of maize bags produced per acre is 20. ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1. 1US$ = 11.84 GHS Exchange rate at the time of the study.

Table 6. Determinants of PFJ programme participation.

Variables	Coefficient	Std. Err	p-Value	Marginal effect
Demographic characteristics
Age	−0.083	0.076	0.275	−0.002
Sex	2.225**	0.935	0.017	0.106
Farming experience	0.255***	0.091	0.005	0.018
Household size	−0.045	0.513	0.930	−0.041
Marital status	0.056	0.683	0.935	0.006
Education	0.906***	0.258	0.000	0.053
Farm size	−0.111	0.091	0.223	−0.008
Institutional characteristics
Access to credit	−1.999***	0.696	0.004	−0.129
Cooperative membership	1.121*	0.621	0.071	0.020
Extension service	0.498	0.613	0.416	0.043
Other characteristics
Off-farm income	0.206	0.797	0.796	0.042
Farm distance	−0.061**	0.025	0.014	−0.004
Constant	−0.120	2.149	0.955
LR chi^2 (12)	219.69
Prob > chi^2	0.000
Pseudo R^2	0.8614
Log likelihood	−17.6771

Source: Author’s computation based on field data, 2023.

***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.10.

Table 7. Variables measurement and hypothesised effect in the probit model.

Variable	Description	Measurement	Expected sign	Source literature
Dependent variable
Participation in PFJ	Farmer participates in PFJ	1 = Yes and 0 = No
Outcome variables
Productivity	Maize productivity	Continuous (kg/acres)	+	Mokgomo et al., 2022; Prah et al., 2023
Income	Farmers income	Amount in Ghana Cedis/Acre	+	Martey et al., 2021
Independent variables
Demographic characteristics
Age	Age of farmer in years	Continuous	+	Nxumalo & Oladele, 2013; Prah et al., 2023
Sex	Farmer is a male	1 = Yes, 0 = No	−/+	Abdul-Hanan & Anang, 2018; Botlhoko & Oladele, 2013
Farming experience	Farming experience in years	Continuous	+/−	Mthombeni et al., 2022; Tekuni et al., 2021
Household size	Number of dependents in the household	Continuous	+	Ansah et al., 2020
Marital status	Farmer is married	1 = Yes, 0 = No	+/−	Etwire et al., 2013; Oladejo et al., 2011
Education	Years of formal education	Continuous	−/+	Etwire et al., 2013; Ismaila & Tanko, 2021
Farm size	Farmer’s area of maize cultivation in acres	Continuous	+/−	Abdul-Hanan & Anang, 2018; Awotodunbo et al., 2022
Institutional characteristics
Access to credit	Farmer has access to credit	1 = Yes, 0 = No	+	Jamilu et al., 2015
Cooperative membership	Farmer is a member of a cooperative	1 = Yes, 0 = No	+	Jamilu et al., 2015; Okoli et al., 2014
Extension service	Extension service is a source of information	1 = Yes, 0 = No	−/+	Awotodunbo et al., 2022; Tologbonse et al., 2013
Mobility and alternative livelihood characteristics
Off-farm income	Farmer has access to off-farm income	1 = Yes, 0 = No	+	Wiredu et al., 2013
Farm distance	Distance from house to the farm in minutes	Continuous	−	Lambongang et al., 2019

Source: Survey data and literature review, 2023.

Figure 2. Maize productivity common support region.

Figure 3. Farmer’s income common support region.

Figure 4. Maize productivity overlap plot.

Figure 5. Farmers’ income overlap plot.

Table 8. Challenges militating against PFJ participation.

Challenges	Frequency (N)	Percentage (%)
Limited fertilizer access	172	46
Restricted market access	134	36
Delayed input delivery	34	10
Inadequate extension services	30	8
Total	370	100

Source: Author’s computation based on field data, 2023.

Table

Gamma	Maize productivity		Maize income
	Sig^+	Sig^−	Sig^+	Sig^−
1	0.327	0.327	0.013	0.013
1.05	0.316	0.339	0.016	0.011
1.1	0.304	0.351	0.019	0.009
1.15	0.294	0.361	0.022	0.007
1.2	0.284	0.372	0.025	0.006
1.25	0.274	0.382	0.028	0.005
1.3	0.265	0.392	0.032	0.004
1.35	0.256	0.401	0.035	0.004
1.4	0.248	0.410	0.039	0.003
1.45	0.240	0.419	0.043	0.002
1.5	0.233	0.428	0.047	0.002
1.55	0.225	0.436	0.002	0.002
1.6	0.218	0.444	0.056	0.001
1.65	0.212	0.452	0.061	0.001
1.7	0.205	0.459	0.065	0.001
1.75	0.199	0.466	0.069	0.001
1.8	0.193	0.473	0.074	0.001
1.85	0.187	0.480	0.079	0.001
1.9	0.182	0.487	0.084	0.000
1.95	0.177	0.494	0.089	0.000
2	0.171	0.500	0.093	0.000

gamma: log odds of differential assignment due to unobserved factors; sig⁺: upper bound significance level; sig⁻: lower bound significance level.

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