The influence of off-farm work on farm income among smallholder farm households in northern Ghana

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conceptual framework.

Source: Authors’ construction

Table 1. Characteristics of the respondents

Variable	Description	Mean	S.D.
Net farm income (Y)	Net farm income per acre in Ghana cedi (GH¢)	360.6	243.6
Off-farm work	Equals 1 for off-farm work; 0 otherwise	0.276	0.447
Age (age)	Age in years	41.13	13.79
Sex (sex)	Equals 1 if male; 0 otherwise	0.759	0.428
Married (mar)	Equals 1 if married; 0 otherwise	0.879	0.327
Education (edu)	Years of formal education	3.724	5.378
Household size (hh)	Number of household members	9.932	5.926
Extension visits (ext)	Equals 1 for access to extension; 0 otherwise	0.459	0.499
Subsidy (sub)	Equals 1 for access to subsidy; 0 otherwise	0.679	0.467
Group member (gmemb)	Equals 1 if farmer group member; 0 otherwise	0.307	0.462
Farm size (fsize)	Farm size in acres	3.678	2.098

Note: GH¢ 1.0 = US $ 0.167 in 2020

Table 2. Characteristics of the respondents according to off-farm participation status

Variable	Participants (n=134)	Non-participants (n=352)	Mean diff.
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Farm income (Y)	403.2 (259.5)	344.4 (235.6)	58.752**
Age (age)	41.47 (14.01)	41.00 (13.72)	0.470
Sex (sex)	0.724 (0.449)	0.773 (0.420)	−0.049
Married (mar)	0.873 (0.334)	0.881 (0.325)	−0.008
Education (edu)	4.485 (5.902)	3.435 (5.144)	1.050*
Household size (hh)	10.59 (5.848)	9.682 (5.945)	0.908
Extension visits (ext)	0.560 (0.498)	0.420 (0.494)	0.139***
Subsidy (sub)	0.642 (0.481)	0.693 (0.462)	−0.051
Group member (gmemb)	0.410 (0.494)	0.267 (0.443)	0.143***
Farm size (fsize)	3.806 (2.100)	3.629 (2.098)	0.177

Note: GH¢ 1.0 = US $ 0.167 in 2020

Table 3. Farm income per acre

Farm income in Ghana cedis (GH¢)	Frequency	Percent
1–200	131	26.95
201–400	191	39.30
401–600	101	20.78
601–800	29	5.97
801–1000	20	4.12
1001–1200	12	2.47
1201–1400	2	0.41
Total	486	100

Mean = GH¢361.2, minimum = GH¢30, maximum = GH¢1400.Note: GH¢ 1.0 = US $ 0.167 in 2020.

Table 4. Determinants of income diversification and farm income

Variable	Determinants of off-farm work		Determinants of farm income
	Coefficient	Std. Err.	Coefficient	Std. Err.
Age	0.005	0.005	−0.079	1.051
Sex	−0.150	0.140	14.46	29.55
Married	−0.090	0.201	46.99	41.95
Education	−0.036	0.038	18.88**	7.961
Education squared	0.005**	0.003	−1.267**	0.551
Household size	0.012	0.011	−6.563***	2.258
Farm size in acres	0.031*	0.018
Extension visits	0.187	0.126	82.31***	27.11
Access to subsidy	−0.246*	0.136	101.5***	29.12
Farmer group member	0.395***	0.128	−62.84**	28.21
Off-farm work* Education			10.78***	3.806
Off-farm work (Z)			386.3***	37.72
Constant	−0.963***	0.298	153.4**	61.94
Diagnostic statistics
/athrho	−1.264***	0.144
/lnsigma	5.607***	0.050
rho	−0.852***	0.039
sigma	272.4***	13.55
lambda	−232.2***	20.87
Wald test of indep. eqns. (rho = 0): Chi squared (1)	77.23***

Note: ***, ** and * means significant at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively.