Food-tree cash crop diversification and farm household welfare in the Forest-Savannah Transition Zone of Ghana

A growing body of literature underscores the importance of diversified cropping systems in resolving the age-old controversy on the income and food security implications of cash crop production. Significant knowledge gaps, however, exist in terms of the precursors and actual impacts of diversified food-cash crop systems. This paper therefore assesses the determinants of food-tree cash crop diversification, and its impacts on the income and food security of farmers. The paper uses survey data collected from 408 randomly selected households in the Forest-Savannah Transition Zone of Ghana. Findings indicate that cash-food crop diversification impacts positively on household annual crop income and food security, and these positive impacts further increase as the diversity of tree cash crops (cocoa and/or cashew) increases. The paper emphasises the importance of income from tree cash crops, and complementarities between cash crops and food crop production in explaining the food security merits of diversified food-cash crop systems. Overall, food crop farmers’ decision to diversify into cocoa and or cashew was significantly predicted by farming experience of the household head, farm characteristics of the household (fallow land availability, land ownership and livestock ownership), as well as economic (annual crop income and access to off-farm income) and institutional (access to extension) factors. These results imply that promoting livestock farming and enhancing farmers’ access to financial and technical support services could encourage adoption of diversified cropping systems. However, considering that land ownership rights in sub-Saharan Africa are oftentimes unclear, contested or poorly enforced, pro-poor and equitable land tenure reforms would be indispensable in promoting diversification into tree cash crops by subsistence farm households.