ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Small-scale egg and orange-fleshed sweet potato production and utilisation in selected communities in Ghana: A mixed-methods study

Background Nutrition-related exposures during the first 1,000 days of life are a predictor of health outcomes later in life. World Vision Ghana’s ‘Improved Feeding Practices for the 1,000 days’ (IFP) project aimed to improve the dietary practices of women and children by utilising an integrated intervention approach including nutrition, health, and agriculture strategies. Objective This paper reports on the production and utilization of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) and eggs for improving the diets of women of reproductive age and young children during the first 1,000 days of life. Methods Primary data from Kassena-Nankana West (KNW), Sekyere East (SE) and Kintampo South (KS) districts were triangulated with project routine data for this analysis. Univariate analyses of quantitative data from baseline and implementation monitoring data were conducted to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of beneficiaries, inputs disbursed, outputs produced, and utilization of the food commodities. Qualitative interviews from 61 participants were transcribed, coded, and thematically analyzed; these were triangulated with quantitative data to capture the main themes and findings. Results OFSP and egg production and consumption increased annually across beneficiary communities. In 2021, 100% of OFSP produced was consumed in KS; in SE, 95.0% was consumed and 5.0% lost to post-harvest losses. In 2022, 90% of OFSP produced in KNW was consumed and 9.0% was sold. In KS, 90.3% was consumed and 9.0% sold. In SE, 82.3% was consumed and 17.1% sold. Egg production at the end of the first production year (2022) was 18,720 crates in KNW, 19,680 crates in KS, and 40,128 crates in SE. Egg consumption in sample households was less than 10% in 2022 and showed a decreased trend in the first half of 2023. In SE and KS, egg and OFSP production, respectively, increased, exponentially; sale for income was the most common mode of utilization in eggs but OFSP was consumed in these districts. In KNW, climate, irrigation, and socio-cultural barriers hindered the maximal production and utility of the produce, which was not observed in SE and KS, which did not have any of these identified barriers. Reported unintended benefits of production and utilization included increased household income, food security, and availability of organic manure as a side-product of poultry. Conclusions The IFP project resulted in increased household-level production, use, and distribution of Eggs and OFSP across the three focal districts. Similar settings may benefit from this intervention by adapting the strategies to make it easier for beneficiaries to better cope with likely potential barriers such as poultry mortality and water scarcity.

Source: UG
Small-scale farmers' challenge of integration into the world market

Concerns about the effects of globalization on small-scale farmers in Africa have been an issue of debate for the past two decades. Globalization comes with rewards as well as challenges and affects farmers around the world in different ways, based on their specific characteristics, the nature of their market networks and cropping patterns. Field results from three farming systems in Ghana show that winner households in the process of globalization have relatively larger farms, produce high value crops, have a relatively well educated household member and have stronger market networks. Loser households had a small share of their output that is traded. The geographic location, nature of market linkages, environmental conditions, and the extent of infrastructural development of a particular farming system were found to affect the degree of market integration. Targeted support to acquire production inputs and effectively market farm produce can enhance the opportunities for better integration into the global market system, reduce poverty, and increase farmer incomes. © Common Ground, Ivy Drafor, George T-M. Kwadzo, All Rights Reserved.

Source: UG
Smallholder adaptation to climate change: dynamics and limits in Northern Ghana

Climate change and land degradation result in decreasing yields and crop failures in Northern Ghana and have caused further impoverishment of Ghana’s poorest region. Farmers have diversified their livelihoods to adapt to uncertain environmental conditions in various ways. While traditionally a diversification of the production and migration were the prime means of adaptation, many farmers have started to intensify their production by adopting shallow groundwater irrigation for vegetable gardening for Ghana’s urban markets. This has helped to cope with a changing environment, ameliorated poverty and reversed rural–urban migration, while the local hydrology curbed an over-exploitation of groundwater resources, commonly associated with an uncontrolled farmer-driven expansion of groundwater irrigation. This research confirms that farmer-driven small-scale irrigation can play an important role in the process of climate change adaptation. However, while farmers tried to integrate in the larger economy, they have become subject to market failures that in their essence are caused by unfair and unpredictable patterns of global trade. It is this double exposure to global environmental change and economic globalization that need to be taken into consideration when local adaptive capacities are discussed. Many convincing arguments call for the revision of some of the most unfair and devastating economic practices; however, the need to enhance adaptive capacity towards global climate change for poor parts of the population in the south should be added to the discussion.

Source: UG
Smallholder Farmer Risk Preferences in Northern Ghana:Evidence from a Controlled Field Experiment

We conduct a controlled field experiment to elicit risk preferences among maize farmers in Northern Ghana. Farmers participating in the experiment were asked to choose from a menu of lotteries representing different hypothetical probability distributions over yields produced by ‘traditional’ and ‘high yield’ maize varieties. We estimate a Rank-Dependent Utility Model (RDU) with an Expo-Power utility function, allowing for systematic subjective underweighting or overweighting of outcome probabilities and non-constant relative risk aversion. Based on our estimates, we cannot reject the hypotheses that decisions made by farmers in our study can be uniformly characterised by conventional Von Neumann–Morgenstern expected utility theory (EUT), but reject the hypothesis that farmers exhibit constant relative risk aversion.

Source: UG
Smallholder Farmer Risk Preferences in Northern Ghana:Evidence from a Controlled Field Experimentt

We conduct a controlled field experiment to elicit risk preferences among maize farmers in Northern Ghana. Farmers participating in the experiment were asked to choose from a menu of lotteries representing different hypothetical probability distributions over yields produced by ‘traditional’ and ‘high yield’ maize varieties. We estimate a Rank-Dependent Utility Model (RDU) with an Expo-Power utility function, allowing for systematic subjective underweighting or overweighting of outcome probabilities and non-constant relative risk aversion. Based on our estimates, we cannot reject the hypotheses that decisions made by farmers in our study can be uniformly characterised by conventional Von Neumann–Morgenstern expected utility theory (EUT), but reject the hypothesis that farmers exhibit constant relative risk aversion

Source: UG
Smallholder farmers’ knowledge of mobile telephone use: Gender perspectives and implications for agricultural market development

Recent growth in mobile telephone and mobile-based information services in many developing countries provides opportunities to reduce costly and incomplete information dissemination in the agricultural sector and ensure efficient functioning of markets. But in order to successfully use mobile phones for the optimal development of agricultural markets, understanding the impact of social structure on mobile phone adoption, its uses and perceived impacts are invaluable. Although global assessments of capacity in the use of information communication technology (ICT) devices have been considered, such assessments mask significant geo-spatial variations among local farmers—male and female—with respect to their capacity to effectively use basic mobile phone functions. Documenting and recognizing this is important for the development of national agricultural ICT policies, as well as programmes aimed at increasing farmers’ knowledge and use of ICT for agricultural marketing. This article’s contribution to agricultural marketing and the use of ICT in developing countries (such as Ghana) is anchored in the assessment of the technical capacity and mobile telephone-based market information access to farmers in selected rural districts of Ghana. The selected districts are where most households are poor and heavily dependent on farming as their mainstay, and furthermore, where market information which mobile phones facilitate is crucial to maximizing their incomes.

Source: UG
Smallholder farmers’ perceived effects of land use and cover change on provisioning ecosystem services in the savannah ecological zone of Ghana

Ecosystem services are essential for life sustenance but are presently threatened by land use and cover change (LUCC). Meanwhile, policymakers tend to to disregard sustainable pathways that enhance ecosystem integrity due to limited empirical evidence of the impacts of LUCC on provisioning ecosystem services. The existing studies largely rely only on geospatial data or use proxy variables without integration of qualitative information. This study employed a blend of geospatial and qualitative approaches to analyse the spatiotemporal dynamics of LUCC and the perceived impact on provisioning ecosystem services in the savannah zone of Ghana. The findings reveal an expansion of cultivated area from 4.59 km2 to 178.63 km2 and a decrease in wooded savannah area from 176.022 km2 to 29.22 km2 between 1990 and and 2020 in the Bongo district. Declines in wooded savannah area from 471.685 km2 to 258.38 km2 and expansion of cultivated area from 5.79 km2 to 123.80 km2 from 1990 to 2020 were also observed in the KNW district. In In synch with the satellite data, farmers observed expansion in agricultural areas at the expense of wooded savannah area over the past decades. Though farmers highly depend on ecosystems for livelihood needs, the capacity of the ecosystems to continually support their livelihood requirements has decreased over the past decade, and this has resulted in substantial declines in vital provisioning ecosystem services such as cereals, fuelwood, fodder and forage, grazing fields, medicinal plants, and wild edible fruits and vegetables. To ameliorate decreasing provisioning ecosystem services, environmental governance policies should promote strategies that restore degraded ecosystems.

Source: UG
Smallholder farmers’ risk perceptions and risk management responses: Evidence from the semi-arid region of Ghana

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the perceptions of farmers on the major sources of risk and to examine the effectiveness of the risk management responses of rural smallholder farm households in the semi-arid region of Northern Ghana from the socioeconomic perspective. Design/methodology/approach Both descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis were used on a Likert scale question to rank and identify the important risk perceptions and management strategies of the farmers. The linear regression model was used to highlight the significant factors that affect the farmers’ risk perception and management responses. Findings The effects of the variations in crop yield, fertiliser prices and crop price on household income were perceived as the three most relevant sources of risk. Stabilising household income by growing different crops, storing feed/seed reserves and spreading sales were the most effective risk management strategies. Factor analysis identified market risk, production risk and human risk as major risk factors whereas diversification, financial strategy, and off-farm employment were perceived as the most effective risk management strategies. Farm and farmer characteristics were found to be significantly associated with risk perceptions and risk management strategies. Risk perceptions significantly increase the risk management strategy adopted by the smallholder rural farmers. Practical implications The findings of the paper call for the integration of farmers’ risk perceptions and management strategies in the development of agricultural policies for the semi-arid regions of Ghana. Originality/value This paper deviates from the traditional technology adoption studies by modelling rural household perceptions and management strategies using, using descriptive, factor analyses, and linear regression.

Source: UG
Smallholder maize farmers' food consumption expenditures in Ghana: The mediating role of commercialization

This paper examines the effect of smallholder maize farmers' commercialization on their household food consumption expenditures in Ghana using data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey Round Five (GLSS5). The results indicate that the intensity of smallholder maize commercialization is generally low and that better output price, quantity of maize produced, farm size, type of market or point of sale, access to mobile phone network coverage, proportion of crops given to landlord, instant payment for maize sold, are inter alia key incentive variables that influence the intensity of maize commercialization. The study also revealed that intensity of maize commercialization positively influenced food consumption expenditures. Increases in the sale of maize results in increases in purchases of food items needed to address household food security needs. These findings demonstrate the urgent need to strengthen smallholder market integration initiatives, encourage market information delivery systems, and establish more retail outlets with improved market facilities in order to promote production and trade in high value cereals such as maize in Ghana.

Source: UG
Smart investment in global childcare requires local solutions and a coordinated research agenda

Childcare is a smart investment and key for advancing gender equity. An emerging body of evidence demonstrates that providing childcare services contributes to improved health, well-being and economic opportunities for children, women, families and communities with potential for intergenerational impacts.1–4 For these reasons, investment in care systems is said to result in a ‘triple dividend’: facilitating women’s entry into the labour market, promoting child development and boosting employment in the care sector, a predominantly female workforce.3 Nonetheless, attention to and investment in accessible, affordable, context-specific and high-quality care services still lag behind other forms of social protection. For example, despite an unprecedented global response to the pandemic, out of 3099 social protection and labour market measures enacted or planned by governments through July 2021, less than 20% took gender into account, and only 7% supported unpaid care.5 Support of unpaid care was particularly low in sub-Saharan Africa, representing only 2% of all measures. Recognising the critical role of robust care systems in catalysing changes in gender norms around women’s participation in economic activities (and men’s role in care work), child-care is high on the post-pandemic agenda.4 6–8 The Generation Equality Forum in Paris in 2021 galvanised commitment to address the care crisis, launching the Childcare Incentive Fund. The fund mobilises $180million in new investment to support the design and implementation of childcare programmes, and to improve evidence generation and policy designs in low/middle-income countries.9 While this is a welcome step, efforts are needed to ensure an approach that prioritises locally led and culturally adapted implementation, systems-building and evidence-generation by national scholars. Without these efforts, the agenda on childcare risks misalignment with local realities and national policy priorities. In this commentary, we highlight the value of a coordinated research agenda taking an African regional perspective. In discussion with childcare implementers and researchers involved in the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) cross-country childcare research and programming portfolio, we propose four key areas and corresponding questions which could serve as a starting point for such a research agenda. We highlight innovative local solutions to the childcare crisis as examples and inspiration for how investment can be nationally led and lay the ground-work for systems-building. In closing, we discuss broader issues linked to unpaid care work, as well as policy and structural barriers which must be addressed to advance the childcare agenda and women’s social and economic empowerment in Africa and beyond.

Source: UG
Smartphone Colorimetry Using Ambient Subtraction: Application to Neonatal Jaundice Screening in Ghana

A smartphone app to screen for neonatal jaundice has a large potential impact in reducing neonatal death and disability. Our app, neoSCB, uses a colour measurement of the sclera to make a screening decision. Although there are numerous benefits of a smartphone-based approach, smartphone colour measurement that is accurate and repeatable is a challenge. Using data from a clinical setting in Ghana, we compare sclera colour measurement using an ambient subtraction method to sclera colour measurement using a standard colour card method, and find they are comparable provided the subtracted signal-to-noise ratio (SSNR) is sufficient. Calculating a screening decision metric via the colour card method gave 100% sensitivity and 69% specificity (n=87), while applying the ambient subtraction method gave 100% sensitivity and 78% specificity (SSNR>3.5; n=50).

Source: UG
SME bank selection and patronage behaviour in the Ghanaian banking industry

Purpose – The paper aims to investigate small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) bank selection and patronage behaviour in the Ghanaian banking sector. Design/methodology/approach – A detailed literature review was used to identify five determinants of bank selection and other patronage factors which were used to survey 503 SMEs randomly selected from the data base of the National Board for Small Scale Industries in Ghana. Exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression and correlation analysis were used for the data analysis. Findings – The study found price competitiveness, credit availability, perceived service quality, staff attributes and bank attributes as determinants of SME bank selection. In addition, loans and overdrafts, cash collection, transfers, bank guarantees, advisory services and training were among the core services patronized by the SMEs. Practical implications – The study highlights the importance of factors considered important to the SME bank selection and patronage behaviour. It thus provides practical leverage to banks on how to attract, serve and retain SMEs in Ghana. Originality/value – The study is the first of its kind that investigated both bank selection and patronage behaviour at the same time and provides important insight for banks on how to attract, satisfy and manage SMEs. It also makes a major contribution to the literature on SME banking behaviour especially in a sub-Saharan Africa and responds to the recent call for more studies on SME practices in emerging economies.

Source: UG
SME policy formulation and implementation in Africa: Unpacking assumptions as opportunity for research direction

The increasing acknowledgement of the role of SMEs in economic growth and reducing unemployment in SSA brings forth the need for research into understanding the role and impact of the SME policy and its outcomes. However, the lack of adequate critical examination of the current SME policies across SSA as well as the absence of a holistic conceptual framework has put limitations on the further development of literature in the field. In this article, we have attempted to critique the existing assumptions underpinning the SME policy. We have also advanced a conceptual framework and propositions to enable the holistic research that can shed more light on our understanding of the interactions between SME policies, the business environment (context), the entrepreneur, and policy outcomes. Finally, we proposed research questions and an agenda that should guide future research.

Source: UG
SMEs Financing and Banks’ Profitability: A “Good Date” for Banks in Ghana?

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the core of most economies and are a major source of economic growth. In recent times, banks have been actively involved in the financing of SMEs through the provision of loans to this sector. This paper investigates the impact of SMEs financing on banks’ profitability in Ghana. The study employed the fixed effect model as the main regression tool. The study result reveals that SMEs significantly contribute to banks’ profitability in Ghana. Interestingly, transaction cost in administering SME loans was insignificant in all the models. Higher inflation reduces the real value of the loan and erodes the interest returns on the total credit to the SMEs. Conversely, growth of GDP enhances the growth of the bank profit.

Source: UG
SMEs record keeping in ghana: Has VAT made it better?

With the introduction of the VAT Flat Rate Scheme, which brings on-board traders on whom the VAT record-keeping requirements would or might prove burdensome, concerns arise on the potential impact of the ‘VAT record keeping requirement’ on SME’s record keeping. The focus of this study was to investigate the effect of the record-based controls of VAT on firms’ record keeping skills and accounting system based on a sample of 250 SME’s selected from five key trading centres in the Accra metropolis. The result showed that completion of the VAT monthly return form imposes more cost on traders than the VAT invoice book. Firms who receive education from VAT officials are found to be 0.102 more likely to complete the VAT monthly return form than firms who do not receive education from VAT officials. Also, firms who receive education from VAT officials are 0.849 times as likely as those firms who had not received education from VAT officials to complete the VAT invoice book by self. Generally the result showed that the ‘record-based controls of VAT’ has significantly improved SME’s record keeping skills and accounting system albeit it is found to be stringent relative to other record keeping types kept by SME’s. © 2014 Econjournals. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
SMIM1 at a glance; discovery, genetic basis, recent progress and perspectives

Recent elucidation of the genetic basis of the Vel blood group system has offered the field of blood transfusion medicine an additional consideration in determining the causes of hemolytic reactions after a patient is transfused. The identification of the SMIM1 gene to be responsible for the Vel blood group allows molecular based tools to be developed to further dissect the function of this antigen. Genetic signatures such as the homozygous 17 bp deletion and the heterozygous 17 bp deletion in combination with other single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion sequences regulate the expression level of the gene. With this knowledge, it is now possible to study this antigen in-depth.

Source: UG