Impact of productivity improvement and employment generation fund on Household income and Food security of beneficiaries in the West Mamprusi District of Ghana

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JANUARY, 2016.
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Abstract
The study employed the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique to examine the impact of the Productivity Improvement and Employment Generation Fund (PIEGF) on household income and food security in five farming communities in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern region of Ghana. The study communities were:Walewale, Wulugu, Wungu,Nasia and Tinguri. A sample size of 300 respondents was used in the study. The descriptive results indicated that the fund had contributed positively to improving the food security and income levels of about ninety percent (90%) of the respondents. The results revealed that more of the females (74.09%) than the male (67.50%) headed households were aware of the existence of the fund. It was observed that ninety eight percent (98%) of beneficiaries and thirty one percent (31%) of non - beneficiaries had access to credit from other sources respectively. The empirical results generally show that the Productivity Improvement and Employment Generation Fund had positive and robust impact on food security status and income levels of the beneficiary households. With regards to food security, there was an observed mean difference of 346 kg of food with participants recording higher food stock of 1.154 tonnes comparable to non-participants who recorded 0.808 tonnes of food stock. This was observed at a statistical significant level of 1% indicating the presence of heterogeneous effects. The results also showed an observed mean difference of GH₵ 370.00 of household income with participants recording mean household income of GH₵ 1200.00 and GH₵ 830.00 for the non-participants which was also statistically significant at 1% indicating that there is presence of heterogeneous effects.
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A dissertation submitted to the Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribussiness and Extenson in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Mphil degree in Agricultural Economics.
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