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Livestock ownership and household food security in Northern Ghana: is there a nexus?

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Abstract

Food insecurity and poverty have been widely reported in many regions of the world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Livestock ownership by rural farming households has been considered as one of the key interventions to overcome food insecurity constraints. However, empirical evidence to support such hypothesis is inadequate in agricultural and development literature for farm-level policy implications. This study examined the nexus between livestock ownership and household food security using cross-sectional data collected from rural farming households in northern Ghana. The instrumental variable two-stage least squares (IV-2sls) method, which corrects for self-selection bias and endogeneity caused by observed and unobserved household factors, was used to quantify the effect of ownership of livestock on food security. The findings revealed that ownership of livestock was influenced by a combination of socioeconomic and farm-specific factors. The empirical results also showed that owning livestock significantly improves household food security. As a result, interventions that build households’ capacity for livestock production and management will consequently enhance household food security.

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The data that was used for this paper is available on request from the corresponding author. The data is not publicly available due to restrictions in relation to information that could compromise the confidentiality of the research participants.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the farmers, and all stakeholders who participated in the survey.

Funding

No funding or grant was received for this research. It was solely finance by the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Food Economics, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana

    Maxwell A. Asale

  2. Department of Agribusiness, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana

    Gideon Danso-Abbeam

  3. Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Gideon Danso-Abbeam & Abiodun A. Ogundeji

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  1. Maxwell A. Asale
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  2. Gideon Danso-Abbeam
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  3. Abiodun A. Ogundeji
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Correspondence to Gideon Danso-Abbeam.

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Asale, M., Danso-Abbeam, G. & Ogundeji, A. Livestock ownership and household food security in Northern Ghana: is there a nexus?. SN Soc Sci 4, 60 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00833-9

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