Welfare impacts of adoption of improved soybean varieties in northern Ghana

Abstract

Soybeans are an integral part of Ghana's smallholder cropping systems and show significant promise for combating soil fertility decrease and improving food security and wellbeing for households. Many yield-enhancing improved soybean varieties (ISVs) have been produced and distributed in Ghana, but little is known about the adoption and impact of these cultivars. This paper explores the welfare effects of adopting ISVs using data collected from 330 soybean farmers in Northern and Savannah regions of Ghana. The results indicated that about 47% of the sampled farming households have adopted the ISVs. The first-stage results of the instrumental variable 2sls (IV-2SLS) indicated that adoption of ISVs are influenced by factors such as farm size, engagement in non-farm economic activities, membership of farmer group and household asset index. Furthermore, after correcting for observed and unobserved differences in household characteristics, adoption of ISVs led to a significant gains in productivity and consumption expenditure per capita (welfare indicators). Overall, the findings suggest that ISVs need to be scaled up in order to have a stronger influence on the welfare of smallholder farmers in Ghana.