Agriculture is a greater contributor to poverty through jobs creation, food security and availability to world economies [1, 2]. Approximately 1.5 billion people are engaged in smallholder agriculture across the world. They include 75 % of the world’s poorest people, whose food, income and livelihood prospects depend on agriculture [3]. It is undoubtedly seen as a bigger contributor to reducing poverty in a mass form than any other intervention according to [1]. By 2050, Africa’s population will be 1.7 billion people [4] putting an overwhelming pressure on agriculture to feed the people and create jobs. These jobs will not only come from primary production of crop commodities and livestock, but through entrepreneurship as well. This is because of the shift in primary production to feed an agro-based processing paradigm and the wider expansion and involvement of other stakeholders in development. According to [5], the support to this shift from primary to processing, entrepreneurship and innovation stem from the support of agricultural extension support services and agricultural pro policies.
People’s ability to escape poverty depends on access to assets or livelihood capitals [6]. This means that sustainable livelihoods are achieved through access to a range of livelihood resources (natural, economic, human, social and physical capital) which are combined in the pursuit of different livelihood strategies [7]. Rice is a critical, important and a major food security crop in Ghana where about 950,000–1,644,221 metric tons are consumed annually [8, 9], but can only produce 580,000–600,000 metric tons leaving a huge deficit gap. The rice farmers who produce rice as a cash crop to supplement household’s income see themselves as entrepreneurs. Combining all sources of available resources to produce, process, store, transport and sell to consumers or other actors along the rice value chain are what they do as small-scale farmer entrepreneurs. The rice production process is considered a major livelihood option that depends on the available livelihood capitals. These livelihood capitals (natural, physical, human, social and financial) are a major asset for every individual wellbeing which are in different proportions of access and availability [7, 10].
Based on the sustainable livelihood framework, [11] explains livelihood as ‘the activities, the assets, and the access that jointly determine the living gained by an individual or a household’. He further defined ‘rural livelihood diversification’ as ‘the process by which households construct a diverse portfolio of activities and social support capabilities for survival and in order to improve their standard of living’. The diverse portfolio of activities requires some level of innovation and entrepreneurship to improve rural livelihoods and create enabling business opportunities and incomes. It helps to influence rural livelihoods through decisions they make about the management of their wealth or capital resources in their households.
Human capital describes the availability of farmers, rice processors, rice marketers, agro-inputs dealers, labour and agricultural technical officers who have the skills, knowledge, ability to utilise their capabilities to undertake rice production as their livelihood option. The type of knowledge and experience applied on the pre- and post-production scale of rice directly relates to the outcomes. The experience, skill and knowledge again help to minimise the adverse effects of vulnerabilities the production processes are exposed to. Farmers’ ability to select good seeds, prepare and keep good records of their incomes and expenditures incurred, appropriate agronomic practices on the life cycle of the rice plant and the right technique to reduce post-harvest losses will inure to a good yield and income. Family labour is an important form of human capital according to [12]. The quality of the rice produced will also be good, making rice millers and marketers get return on their investment because customers will have value for their money. This process will result in a sustainable livelihood process for all the actors in the chain including labour that drives the activities of the production process with guaranteed wage.
The social capitals of farmers include family, friends, trust, norms, communality, gatherings, and networks of farmer associations and other actors like agro-inputs dealers, land owners and agricultural extension officers. All the networking within these knowledge communities does that with a common purpose and interest. Availability and accessibility to the rice production technologies, and rate of adoption by the farmers have stronger links to their social capital. Social networks may indirectly affect agricultural productivity by influencing farming practices and the household’s propensity to adopt newer technologies via the supply of information through these networks [13, 14]. The networking and membership allow them to learn from each other and depend on specific individual capabilities for their own benefits. Farmers’ adoption levels also increase if they are influenced by their colleague’s farmer other than outsiders. Memberships in more formalised groups (farmer-based organisations) often adhere to mutually agreed or commonly accepted rules, norms and sanctions. This improves their yields and livelihood outcomes with good strategies to manage the rice farming variabilities. More so, labour which is a bigger agricultural capital is largely from family and hired source for rice production activities [15]. Therefore, family plays an important role in the labour sources for rice production which helps them to reduce cost and cope with the intensification process and the vulnerabilities involved, but can have an adverse impact if the bond and belongings are not there. The solidarity component with trust helps them in times of disasters like droughts, poor yields, pest and disease outbreaks and flooding by supporting each other with inputs and even labour in the affected member’s farms.
Natural capital which includes improved access to land, land area cultivated agricultural, fertile soils, water availability and accessibility, pollution elements, livestock and crops are the main drivers of agriculture. Availability and access to these elements of natural capital depend on the capability of the farmers to accessing and utilising the resources. Rice is produced well under fertile soils and available water relying with the farmer’s best use of knowledge and agronomic practices. The knowledge to maintain and sustain the availability of the natural capitals relates to the efficiency of the human capital and the shared values of the social capital. Watershed management and maintenance, not polluting the streams and canals for irrigation, dredging of the water ways, protecting the vegetation and good soil management help the farmer’s production process, improving their coping mechanisms to shocks and vulnerabilities. More so, the maintenance helps in sustaining the availability of the capitals for continues use. Livelihood diversification of the available natural resources by the rice farmers can also help them cope with the disasters and vulnerabilities. Vegetables can be grown during the off-peak season of the production to improve their household incomes and financial capitals as well.
Rice farming is one of the livelihood sources with higher return on investments in Ghana aside cocoa [9] that help farmers to acquire physical assets. This fact means that production (acreage and yield), rice milling machines, power tillers, land, tractors and many others may be accessible to these farmers who have good return on their investment or otherwise good incomes. Farmers turn to invest more in housing, health care and education of their children [16]. Access to irrigation facilities, roads, storage and markets facilitates the strength of farmer’s physical capital and improves the livelihood outcomes. The incomes generated from the production process provide cash to cover the expenses for their clothing, housing, education and other social amenities of the majority of people in rural areas [17]. Whereas the non-availability of the capitals weakens the resilience and coping mechanisms of these farmers during disasters or any adverse event like bush fires and droughts. The inter-relationship with social capital to physical is the link and network to seed and other input suppliers, ice millers, etc., which tends to a good will for the farmer and the other actors’ concern. The financial capital of the farmer will have to be better and strong if the physical capitals are to be sustainable [18]. The knowledge, innovation and training of the farmer, and the processors as elements of human capital greatly contribute to a better coping strategy and recovery during difficulties and challenges. Government support to them in boosting their resilience will provide good roads for easy access, access to processing and bigger ware houses for their produce and easy land acquisition for rice production.
Financial capital is seen within the sustainable livelihoods framework as the financial resources people use to achieve their livelihood objectives. This capital in agriculture is generated and converted from farmers’ product into cash for household expenses and also to be used for savings towards challenging times and bad seasons. Farmers depending on their trainings and support from extension officers can utilise formal and non-formal financial resources and institutions. This type of livelihood strategies and activities can guarantee the level of financial capital they can access or it is available to them. Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) [9] in their reports argues that farmers who are in stronger famer-based organisations (FBOs) which are a social capital element, could access financial support easily from local banks and microfinance companies as well from their own contributions than those who are not. It is inferred that a higher level of social and financial capital occurs in FBOs with internally generated revenue sources and savings culture [19]. This particular view had been earlier upheld by the [20] declaration that most successful groups are those in which a larger proportion of lending capital is derived from group members’ savings. This will automatically add up to improve their coping mechanisms during hard times and better their livelihood outcomes. Aside converting their product into cash and getting support from financial institutions, labour works by the farmer and other diverse livelihood activities within the available period can result into a strong financial capital for the famers [21]. Whilst accessing the strategies and coping mechanisms of these rice farmers and the likely outcome from agricultural interventions and its entrepreneurial leverage, it is necessary to examine the policy and institutional context within which these capitals exist as espoused by [7, 10]. Whilst some capitals may be vulnerable to certain shocks, it may be that authorities are able to act and limit any damage which occurs or perhaps provide recompense [22]. In this sense, the response and support of the district assemblies and the government agencies to the external threats of farmer’s livelihoods is critical.
In complex changing economies that are globally linked with niche developmental trends, farmers need to be more entrepreneurial with business sense and approach. There is pressure for farmers to change their production roles to all-round entrepreneurship paradigms, diversifying away from the production of crops and livestock as raw commodities to an agro-based transformation and further up on the agricultural value chain [23]. Dealing with all rice value chain actors including input dealers, suppliers, transporters, farm labour, agricultural extension officers, marketers and consumers’ etcetera requires some level of skills and assets. Farmers ability to deal with challenges such as vulnerability to production and post-production shocks, access to finance and credit, access to required information, low bargaining power for their produce, unskilled or low technical knowledge etcetera relates to the strength of their livelihood capitals and how they access it [24]. In all these interplay, the relationship and propensity for entrepreneurship depend largely on the access to livelihood capitals and its level of proportions available to the rice farmers. This paper therefore aims to examine rice farmers’ access to livelihood capitals (natural, financial, physical, social and human) and the relationship and propensity for entrepreneurship build up amongst them in Ghana.