Occupation And Food Security In Agro-Ecological Zones In Rural Ghana

ABSTRACT Globally, food security continues to be a complex phenomenon that people across all fields have to manage. In developing countries of which Ghana is part of, the number of people who are food insecure keeps increasing. Little attention has been given to households in the rural areas of the agro-ecological zones and how their occupation influences food security. This study seeks to examine the relationship between occupation and food security in the agro-ecological zones in rural Ghana. The study uses data from the Climate Change, Women in Agriculture and Food Security (WIA, 2016) survey. Data was collected from a sample of 559 households who were interviewed on food sufficiency, dietary diversity and number of meals consumed per day in the last twenty four hours preceding the survey. Household dietary diversity, number of meals consumed and food sufficiency were used as a proxy measure of food security. A linear regression analysis was used to determine the statistical association between occupation in the agroecological zones and food security, controlling for some demographic characteristics such as age of the household head, educational level of the household head, migration status, sex of the household head and marital status. The findings showed that 63.0 percent of households engage in farming only, whilst, 31.8 percent combine farming with another occupation. 5.2 percent of households that engage in non-farming activities only were likely to be food secure compared to those who engage in farming. However, age of the household head, sex of the household head, migration status, marital status and size of the household were not statistically significant with food security. However, occupation, agro-ecological zones and educational level of the household head were significantly related (R2 =0.172) to food security at p