The Role of Rural Women in the Attainment of Household Food ...

Int. J. Pure Appl. Sci. Technol., 12(1) (2012), pp. 29-38

International Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences and Technology ISSN 2229 - 6107 Available online at www.ijopaasat.in Research Paper

The Role of Rural Women in the Attainment of Household Food Security in Ghana: A Case Study of WomenFarmers in Ejura-Sekyeredumasi District S. Boakye-Achampong1, J. Osei Mensah2, R. Aidoo3, * and K. Osei-Agyemang4 1,2,3,4

Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi-Ghana

* Corresponding author, e-mail: ([email protected]) (Received: 30-7-12; Accepted: 27-8-12)

Abstract: This study was carried out to determine the role rural women play in the attainment of household food security in Ghana. Data were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. A total of 100 women farmers were selected through a simple random sampling approach. Frequency distribution tables, percentages and pictograms were used to summarize and organize the field data. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Household Food Security Scale was used to determine the food security status of respondent households and Chi-square test of independence was employed to examine the relationship between household food security and selected roles played by women at the household level. Roles women-farmers played on- and off-farm were categorized into three general roles namely: producers of food (which involves the cultivation of basic food staples), traders of food commodities and other off-farm income earning activities; and home management, which includes preserving, processing and preparing food and provision of child care and other household chores. Evidence from the study showed that majority (56%) of households interviewed were food insecure with about 22% of them being food insecure with hunger and 6% experiencing severe food insecurity. The study showed that household food security in the study area significantly depended on backyard gardening by women, the number of crops cultivated by women, farm income obtained by women and income generated from off-farm activities by women. The study, therefore, recommended that diversification in the roles of women at the household level should be encouraged to improve household food security. Keywords: Ghana, Food security, Women, Off-farm activities, Farm income.

Int. J. Pure Appl. Sci. Technol., 12(1) (2012), 29-38.

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1. Introduction: Background: Food security is the condition in which all people in a country or household have access to sufficient food to live healthy and productive lives (World Bank, 1986). Food security is dependent on a myriad of factors,including the level of agricultural production, food imports and donations, employment opportunities and income earnings, intra-household decision-making and resource allocation, health care utilization and caring practices (Maxwell et al., 1992). It is a multi-dimensional development issue that needs cross-sectoral integrated approaches. Household food security issues cannot be seen in isolation from broader factors such as physical, policy and social environment (Hoddinott, 1999). Government policies have a strong effect on the design and implementation of household food security interventions. Likewise, the presence of social conflict expressed in terms of mistrust of other social groups or even outright violence, is also an important factor in the design and implementation of interventions in a given region. In Ghana, situations of food security are not very different from what is being experienced by other developing countries. The impact of the global financial crises, high food prices, natural disasters, traditional agricultural practices, lack of education and poverty have been identified as major causes undermining food security in Ghana. About 1.2 million Ghanaians, representing five per cent of the national population, currently live under a situation of food insecurity, while two million others representing nine per cent of the population are vulnerable to become food insecure (Quaye, 2008). In most developing countries, women perform a large part of the agricultural work and produce the bulk of the world’s food crops. Historically, women in developing societies have been principally concerned with food crop production. As far back as three decades ago, Quisumbing et al. (1995) noted that women accounted for about 70% to 80% of food production in Sub-Saharan Africa. The productivity of women farmers is constrained by the same factors that affect small agricultural producers in general, but are in turn compounded by gender-specific factors. These include lack of time and limited mobility due to multiple domestic and reproductive responsibilities; women’s limited access to assets and agricultural services (including extension); illiteracy; low participation and limited decision-making in producers’ organizations; and socio-cultural factors affecting their mobility and participation in public decision-making. However, women have a unique base of experience and knowledge that can be used to increase the productivity of smallholder agriculture and in effect contribute to household food security. Fonjong (2004) affirms that woman’s triple roles as food producers, income earners, and home managers make them indispensable in the drive towards food security. Women’s role in ensuring household food security remains largely unrecognized in policy and resource allocation, especially in developing countries. The voices and concerns of rural women are little heard at the national and global level. Women’s groups tend to remain confined to the local level. This translates into a dramatic mismatch between rural women’s voices and decision- making roles and their enormous contribution to agricultural production, marketing, and livelihoods (IFAD, 2010). Ghanaian women are the most important actors in the food chain which begins from farm production, market and intra household distribution of food. They play a lead role in postharvest activities such as shelling of grains, storage, processing and marketing. They are also becoming increasingly visible in farm tasks which traditionally have been designated as male preserves, thus breaking ground in typical male dominated areas such as land clearance and growth of cash crops(Duncan, 2004). Women therefore remain the centre-piece of food security and hold the key to a sound and healthy economy.These facts demonstrate the importance of women and portray them as a key group for both economic growth and food security in Ghana. In spite of the emphasis on women’s role in ensuring household food security in the extant literature, empirical evidence appears to be very sketchy in Ghana. This study was, therefore, designed to determine the role of rural women in the attainment of household food security in a typical agricultural district in Ghana.


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Objectives of the Study: The study sought to address the following objectives: 1. 2. 3.

To identify the specific activities performed by women-farmers in the study area, To determine the food security status of respondent households, and To examine the relationship between household food security and selected roles played by women-farmers in the study area.

2. Relevant Literature: This section reviews relevant literature relating to the concept of food security and various methods or procedures adopted in determining it. It also presents a review of the food security situation in Ghana; women in agriculture in Ghana and their access to productive resources as presented by other researchers in similar studies.

The Concept of Food Security: Food security has been defined in several ways by researchers and international bodies over the years. There are close to 200 definitions of food security (Hoddinott, 1999). Since the World Food Conference of 1974, definitions evolved from viewpoints ranging from emphasis on national food security or an increase in supply, to those calling for improved access to food in the 1980s (FAO, 1983). In the 1990s, improved access was redefined by taking into account livelihood and subjective considerations (Maxwell, 1996). Definitions underwent another round of evolution after the 1996 World Food Summit, when the definition was broadly set as achieving food security “at the individual, household, national, regional and global levels when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO, 1996). Currently, a synthesis of these definitions has identified 3 important pillars which are; • • •

Food availability; Food access; and Food utilization

Food availability emphasizes the physical presence of food in a country, region, local area or household in sufficient quantities on a consistent basis. It means that food is physically present because it has been grown, manufactured, imported and/or transported there. For example, food is available because it can be found on markets, because it is produced on local farms, land or home gardens, or because it arrives as part of food aid. This is food that is visible and in the area (IFRC, 2006). Food access emphasizes having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. It is the way different people can obtain the available food. Normally we access food through a combination of home production, stocks, purchase, barter, gifts, borrowing or food aid. Food access is ensured when communities and households and all individuals within them have adequate resources, such as money, to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet (IFRC, 2006). Access depends normally on income available to the household, distribution of income within the household’ the price of food, and other factors such as individuals’ access to market, social and institutional entitlement/rights. On the other hand, households seeking to preserve food security levels may resort to a number of coping strategies to gain access to food. These include: maintaining normal income generating patterns; adaptation by means of innovative use of available resources or some divestment of liquid assets; divestment of productive assets, such as stock or land; and out-migration and destitution (Boon, 2009). Food access can be negatively influenced by physical insecurity such as conflict, loss of coping options, such as border closure preventing seasonal job migration, or the collapse of safety net institutions that once protected people with low incomes (IFPRI, 2008).


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Food utilization emphasizes the appropriate use of food based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation (WHO, 2011). Food utilization is dependent on the quality of the food, its preparation and storage method, nutritional knowledge, and the health status of the individual consuming the food (IFPRI, 2008). Certain diseases do not allow for the maximum absorption of nutrients and growth requires increased intake of certain nutrients. Food utilization is often reduced by endemic disease, poor sanitation, lack of appropriate nutrition knowledge or culturally prescribed taboos that affect access to nutritious food by certain groups or family members according to age or gender.

Household Food Security and its Determination: The development of household food security as a sub-concept has become very essential in the assessment of the food security at the household level and also the fact that national, regional food insecurity can not necessarily imply food security at the household level. Seminal work on the phenomenon of famine by Sen(1981) brought attention to the issue of access to food by households and by individuals, which could be constrained by economic, social, and cultural factors and was most often a chronic, not transitory, condition at the household level. Food insecurity could occur at the household level, and was occurring, in the absence of regional and national food insecurity. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) defines household food security as “the capacity of a household to procure a stable and sustainable basket of adequate food.” However, some of the terminologies used are difficult to operationalize. Adequacy may be defined in terms of quality and quantity of food, which contribute to a diet that meets the nutritional needs of all household members. Stability refers to the household’s ability to procure food across seasons and transitory shortages, the more traditional definition of food security. Sustainability is the most complex of the terms, encompassing issues of resource use and management, human dignity, and self-reliance, among others (IFAD, 1992). Several methods of measuring this concept have been brought up especially those which clearly show that relative importance is attached to the measurement of the concept and there is the need to capture or factor in every possible factor that can influence it. First, it uses the Individual Food Intake Data method which is a measure of the amount of calories, or nutrients, consumed by an individual in a given time period. One other method is the use of Indices of Household Coping Strategies which employs the use of an index based on how households adapt to the presence or threat of food shortages. The person within the household who has primary responsibility for preparing and serving meals is asked a series of questions regarding how households are responding to food shortages. In the nutrition literature, these first appeared in Radimer, Olson, and Campbell (1990) as stated in Hoddinott (2006). Maxwell (1996) proposed a method for taking consumption-related strategies and constructing a numerical index. Our study, however, employs the Household Food Security Scale developed by USDA and revised in 2000. It is often useful, both for policy and research purposes, to simplify the food security scale into a small set of categories, each one representing a meaningful range of severity on the underlying scale, and to discuss the percentage of the population in each of these categories. Therefore under this method of measurement, four categories have been defined for this purpose: • •

•

Food secure — Households show no or minimal evidence of food insecurity. Here it is considered that a food secure household enjoys three square meals or more a day and issues of skipping of and cutting down meal sizes is not a problem for such households. Food insecure without hunger — According to the USDA Guide in 2000, food insecurity is evident in household members’ concerns about adequacy of the household food supply and in adjustments to household food management, including reduced quality of food and increased unusual coping patterns. Little or no reduction in members’ food intake is reported. Food insecure with hunger (moderate) — Food intake for adults in the household has been reduced to an extent that implies that adults have repeatedly experienced the physical sensation of hunger. In most (but not all) food-insecure households with children, such reductions are not observed at this stage for children.

Int. J. Pure Appl. Sci. Technol., 12(1) (2012), 29-38. •

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Severe Food insecurity— At this level, all households with children have reduced the children’s food intake to an extent indicating that the children have experienced hunger. For some other households with children, this already has occurred at an earlier stage of severity. Adults in households with and without children have repeatedly experienced more extensive reductions in food intake.

Food Security Situation in Ghana: In 2002, the overall domestic production of food was in deficit. Ghana was only 63% self- sufficient in cereals production, 60% in fish production, 50% in meat production and less than 30% in raw materials for agro-based industries. Ghana employed 47% of the economically active population in the year 2000 (GSS, 2000). Root and tuber crops, the most widely used staple food crops contributed to about 34% of agricultural GDP in 1999. In the year 2002, roots and tubers were in surplus production. In fruits, industrial crops, pulses and nuts, Ghana is a net exporter. For some vegetables like pepper and garden eggs, Ghana is self-sufficient and a net exporter. However, in tomatoes and onions Ghana is a net importer. Meat and fish production fall short of estimated national demand. The combined meat and fish production is about 67% of estimated annual demand of 681,000 metric tonnes (GSS, 2000). Fish provides about 20% of the protein requirements of Ghanaians. Annual average production for the last ten years is estimated at 437,000 metric tonnes, that is about 60% of the potential demand. Production from traditional sources have steadily decreased because of over- exploitation of the fisheries resources within the 200/300 nautical miles exclusive economic zone. In the case of poultry production, the high import cost of feed and layers and the unrestricted importation of poultry products are the two main constraints restricting the sectors growth. On the physical supply side of food sometimes inadequate and at times impassable road links between the urban and the rural areas creates situation of rural glut and urban scarcities in food. Also about 20-30% of production is lost due to the poor traditional postharvest management of food crops (GSS, 2000). Losses of this magnitude have a positive effect on prices which in turn restrict access to food at the household level. Growing urbanization (43.8% in 2000) has created slums in the cities where unemployment and low incomes appear to be the main constraint to increased calorie consumption. This state of affairs keep worsening with the years and the nutritional status of these city immigrants keep deteriorating each year. The rapid urbanization has increased the demand for imported food (Wheat and Rice) which in turn has helped to change the consumption patterns of urban dwellers from traditional staples to rice and wheat products. Financial access to food is determined by a combination of income levels, its distribution and the purchasing power of the incomes earned. For example in the three northern regions where the highest malnutrition is recorded, low incomes appear to be the main constraint to increased calorie consumption. Adequate access to foods like meat and fish are restricted to relatively high income groups and households (FAO, 2004).

3. Approach/Methodology: This section briefly discusses the study population, sampling design, method of data collection, and the method of data analysis adopted in this study.

Data The population of this study was women-farmers in the Ejura-Sekyeredumasi District of the Ashanti Region. Five communities (Nyensie, Ejura, BayereNkwanta and Dromankoma) were selected through simple random sampling. Twenty (20) women farmers were randomly selected from each community, making a total sample of 100 women-farmers for the study. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a cross sectional survey by employing a standardized structured questionnaire. Some of the information gathered included socio-economic data, specific activities performed on-farm and off-farm by respondent women, as well as household food security status with the use of the USDA Household Food Security Assessment Scale.


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Analytical Procedure Descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean and standard deviation) and frequency distribution tables were employed to analyse the socioeconomic characteristics of respondent households, specific activities performed by women-farmers on- and off-farm, access to and control of resources and benefits among respondents. The Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS version 19.0) was used to generate percentage distributions, descriptive tables and charts and to carry out bivariate (cross tabulation) analysis. To subject data to statistical analysis, the likelihood ratio chi-square test was employed. To categorize food security status of households, responses obtained from a set of questions were ranked and individual scores were added. The added scores were compared with USDA (2000) food security status chart and then categorized as food secure, food insecure without hunger, food insecure with hunger, and severe food insecurity. The Chi square (χ2) test of independence was used to test the relationships between household food security and selected roles played by women-farmers.

4. Results and Discussion: Characteristics of Respondents: Respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics have been provided in Table1.Majority (78%) of the women interviewed were found to be members of male-headed households. This is a reflection of the general Ghanaian situation where majority of households are headed by males. The modal age of female farmers interviewed in the study area wasfrom 45 to54 years,indicating that majority of the respondents were ageing. Table 1: Respondent Characteristics Variable Frequency (N=100) % of Respondents Gender of Household Head: Male 78 78 Female 22 22 Age (Yrs): 18-24 9 9 25-34 14 14 35-44 27 27 45-54 41 41 Over 55 9 9 Marital Status: Married 35 35 Widowed/ 65 65 Divorced/Separated/Single Education level: No formal education/Basic level 68 68 Secondary level 30 30 Tertiary level 2 2 Household Size: 1-3 23 23 4-6 43 43 7-10 31 31 More than 10 3 3 Farm Size: Less than 3 acres 15 15 3-5 acres 53 53 More than 5 acres 32 32 Source: Field survey, 2011.

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divorced or About 35%of the women were married and the remaining 65% were single, divorced/separated, widowed. Again, majority (68%) of the women-farmers women farmers interviewed in the study had basic level of education at a maximum; just 2% of them had attained tertiary level of education. Majority (53%) of the women surveyed had farm sizes ranging between 3 and 5 acres. Generally, most m of these respondents (68%) were small scale farmers with farm sizes size below 5acres. The modal household size was found to range between four (4) and six (6) members. me

Specific On-farm and Off-Farm Off Activities performed by Women-Farmers: Women Figure 1 and Table 2 provide details of on-farm on and off-farm activities that women-farmers women engaged in. Apart from storage of food produce and animal husbandry, majority (>65%) of women farmers were engaged in almost all farm operations. For instance, it was realized that 85% of the women engaged actively in land clearing and preparation, an activity which hitherto was thought to be done mostly by men. Figure 1: Activities performed by women-farmers

YES

NO

FREQUENCY

100

50

0

ACTIVITIES PERFORMED BY WOMEN

Source: Field survey, 2011. Out of the 100 women interviewed, only 38% of them engaged in off-farm off or non-farm non activities to generate extra income. Table 2 shows that the t most common non-farm activity women performed included petty trading (74%), sewing (29%), weaving (3%) and agro-processing processing (3%). (3%) Table 2: Off-Farm Farm Activities performed by women farmers (N= N= 38) YES Activity Frequency Sewing 11 Petty trading 28 Weaving 1 Agro-processing 1 Source: Field survey, 2011.

NO (%) 28.9 73.7 2.6 2.6

Frequency 27 10 37 37

(%) 71.1 26.3 97.4 97.4

Crops Cultivated by Women omen Farmers: Figure 2 shows that the most important food crops cultivated by women farmers in the district were maize, cassava, plantain, cowpea and yam. Vegetable cultivation was done by just a few women

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(