Socioeconomic determinants of rural households’ food security status in Northern Ghana

Abstract

National aggregate data to analyze food security status at the national level has often been used in many countries including Ghana to determine food security status. This has been a reason that many interventions that have had minimum or no impact on households’ food security status due to variation within region in the design of such interventions. This study used household level-data data from 2260 rural households to determine rural household food insecurity status, and also identify and analyze the socioeconomic factors that significantly influence rural household level food insecurity. The study used the Food Consumption Score (FCS) as the index for household food security status. An ordinal logit model was used to predict household food security status with respect to twelve explanatory variables. The results showed that 70% of the sampled rural households were food insecure, and in particular, food insecurity was found to be more pronounced among female-headed households. The results further showed that improved education, increased household income, improved access to agricultural credit and large farm size increase the probability of households to attain high food security status. On the other hand, high food prices and large household size were found to reduce the probability of households to attain high food security status. For policy implication, these micro-level factors need to be considered in the implementation of food insecurity interventions programs in order to achieve desired outcomes.