Impacts of the complementarity of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) technologies on multiple dimensions of food (in)security and household resilience: evidence from Ghana

Abstract BackgroundClimate variability and declining soil fertility continue to affect agricultural productivity and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. Food insecurity is much prevalent among crop farmers compared to cash crop and non-farm workers in Ghana. However, limited empirical evidence exists on the role of complementary technologies in improving household food security and resilience. MethodsEmploying two rounds of nationally representative data from Ghana and multinomial endogenous switching regression framework, the study evaluates the effects of adoption of the combinations of ISFM technologies on all the four dimensions of food security and household resilience. ResultsThe results showed that all the ISFM choices positively and significantly affect all the dimensions of food security and household resilience. Joint adoption of the complete ISFM package gives the highest gain in all the dimensions of food security and household resilience, except value of household physical assets. ConclusionsRural development interventions have to focus on the adoption of the complete ISFM package since the adoption of any single ISFM technology or a combination of any two ISFM technologies is associated with minimal impact in terms of household food security and resilience. There should be a consistent awareness creation among policy makers and farmers that multiple technology adoption meets the food security needs of farmers better than adoption of any single improved technology. Input subsidy programs should include organic fertilizers in order to optimize program benefits on all the four dimensions of food security.