Gender productivity differentials: The case of cereal farmers in the Upper West Region of Ghana
Keywords:
Gender, Ordinary Least Square, Multicollinearity, Households, Income, Maize, RiceAbstract
The study was conducted to determine the role gender plays in the production of maize and rice in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Secondary data was obtained from the Monitoring Evaluation and Technical Support Services (METSS) of USAID involving 156 randomly selected agricultural households in the Region. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the relative contributions made by men and women in the maize and rice production whereas multiple linear regression was used to identify the determinants of maize and rice in the Region. Results from the study revealed that, the mean output levels of maize by gender were 288.68kg and 139.52kg for men and women respectively, whereas that of rice was 102.41kg and 63.19kg for men and women respectively. The study further revealed that, land size, household income, marital status, location of farmer and access to credit were the key determinants of maize and rice production in the region, however, gender was found to be insignificant. It was therefore recommended that holders of arable lands that are not under cultivation should give them out to interested farmers to farm on (especially the youth) since the population of farmers in the region are mainly youth or those in their youthful age and are expected to be very strong and healthy to work hard. The study further recommends that government as well as NGOs should implement programs and policies that would go a long way to increase food crop production in the Upper West Region.
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