Farm Household Strategies for Food Security in Northern Ghana: A Comparative Analysis of High and Low Population Farming Systems

Abstract

In many economically deprived regions of Sub-saharan Africa the farm-household is, predominantly, a production-consumption unit (Low, 1986). Consequently, its theoretical analysis requires a framework that is significantly different from mainstream microeconomic theory. For example, the primary goal of farm households in northern Ghana is food selfsufficiency (Fey, 1992; Baur, 1992; Runge-Metzger, 1993; ICRA/NAES, 1993). This goal is justified under the existing high climatic risk. In such households food entitlement is gained through own food production and cash incomes from the sale of crops, livestock and non-farm products. Paid casual employment and remittances from emigrated relatives sometimes provide additional sources of food entitlement. It follows from here that rural subsistence households have multiple objectives toward increasing household food security (McKee, 1986; Herbon, 1990). However, variations are expected to exist in the strategy, i.e. the means and criteria used to achieve the multiple objectives (White, 1969). Therefore, the issue of strategy for achieving household food security is important in research and policy meant to address peasant farmers’ economic problems.