Cash crops and food security: evidence from smallholder cocoa and cashew farmers in Ghana

Table 2 Descriptive statistics of the determinants of food security in cocoa households in the Forest-Savannah Transition Zone of Ghana (n = 236)

Categorical variables Number of respondents	(n)	%
Sex of the Household Head
Male	208	88.14
Female	28	11.86
Education Level of the Household Head
Completed at least primary education	171	72.46
Did not complete primary education	65	27.54
Livestock ownership
Yes	170	72.03
No	66	27.97
Access to off-farm income
Yes	127	53.81
No	109	46.19
Access to extension in the last 12 months
Yes	176	74.56
No	60	25.44
Access to cash or input credit in the last 3 years
Yes	43	18.22
No	193	81.78
Farming cashew
Yes	140	59.32
No	96	40.68
Displacement of food crops using cocoa
Yes	147	62.29
No	89	37.71

Continuous variables	Mean ± SD
Age of the household head (years)	53.85 ± 12.85
Farming experience of the household head (years)	24.97 ± 13.18
Cocoa farming experience of the household head (years)	9.79 ± 7.28
Household size	7.01 ± 3.46
Number of separate farmlands owned	2.62 ± 2.20
Household labour size	3.21 ± 1.96
Household gross annual crop income in thousands of Ghana Cedis	8.60 ± 10.98
Household gross annual income from cocoa in thousands of Ghana Cedis^a	3.03 ± 4.68

The model automatically excluded four households from the analyses because they were unable to estimate their total crop or cocoa income.
^aThe estimate incorporated households with no income from cocoa. The figure is therefore lower than the average figure obtained from households who were earning from cocoa

ISSN: 2048-7010