Abokyi Emmanuel, Strijker Dirk, Asiedu Kofi Fred, Daams Michiel N
Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, P. O. Box AH 50, Accra, Ghana.
Department of Economic Geography, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, P.O.B. 800, Groningen, 9700 AV, the Netherlands.
Heliyon. 2020 Sep 24;6(9):e05013. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05013. eCollection 2020 Sep.
Instability in smallholder farmers' income in developing countries due to unstable farm prices has been a challenge for farmers and agricultural policymakers over the years. Sustained price stabilization mechanisms are mostly lacking. In some countries, output price support has been initiated to stabilize incomes and as an incentive to enhance farmer investment and boost production. This paper investigates the impacts of output price support on smallholder farmers' income in Ghana, using a household and farm-level data from 252 beneficiaries and 268 non-beneficiaries of buffer stock operations in Ghana. We applied the Coarsened Exact Matching and Propensity Score Matching methods to balance the data among the two groups. We estimate the smallholder farmer income effect from participating in buffer stock operations by combining the matching methods in a regression framework. The results affirm that buffer stock operations increase the incomes of participating smallholder farming households by at least 12%, providing evidence that output price support via buffer stocks is a critical tool for improving incomes and alleviating poverty among farmers in Ghana. The results further indicate that age, gender, access to market, and use of extension services, as well as transport and packaging costs, drive the participation of smallholder farmers in the buffer stock operations in Ghana. The findings are relevant to local policymakers and development partners who develop tailored interventions to stabilize and increase income for smallholder maize farmers in Ghana.
多年来，发展中国家小农户收入因农产品价格不稳定而产生波动，这一直是农民和农业政策制定者面临的一项挑战。目前大多缺乏持续的价格稳定机制。在一些国家，已启动产出价格支持措施，以稳定收入，并激励农民增加投资、提高产量。本文利用加纳252名受益者和268名非受益者的家庭及农场层面数据，研究了产出价格支持对加纳小农户收入的影响。我们运用了粗化精确匹配和倾向得分匹配方法来平衡两组数据。通过在回归框架中结合匹配方法，我们估算了参与缓冲库存运作对小农户收入的影响。结果证实，缓冲库存运作使参与其中的小农户家庭收入至少增加了12%，这表明通过缓冲库存提供产出价格支持是提高加纳农民收入和缓解贫困的关键工具。结果还进一步表明，年龄、性别、市场准入、推广服务的使用，以及运输和包装成本，推动了加纳小农户参与缓冲库存运作。这些研究结果对当地政策制定者和发展伙伴具有参考价值，他们可为稳定和增加加纳小农户玉米种植者的收入制定针对性的干预措施。
