Does social capital improve farm productivity and food security? Evidence from cocoa-based farming households in Southwestern Nigeria.

This study investigated the impact of social capital on farm productivity and food security among cocoa-based farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 300 cocoa-based farming households for the study. Two-step Heckman and three-stage simultaneous models were used for the analyses. The results of a two-step Heckman model revealed that asset, age of household head, years of education, gender, farm size, land tenure, loan interest rate and extension visits were the determining factors influencing the probability of participating in social groups. While the level of participation in the social groups were determined by age of household head, years of education, membership in agricultural organization, off farm income, land tenure, interest rate, distance to credit sources, extension visit, decision making index, cash contribution index, and labour contribution index. The simultaneous equation models showed that social capital was positive and significantly influenced farm productivity and food security of the cocoa-based farming households. A unit increase in the instrumented social capital increased the household's farm productivity and food security by 0.577 kg/₦ and 0.861 calories, respectively. The study concluded that social capital enhanced farm productivity and improved food security of the cocoa-based farming households. The study therefore, recommends that rural credit should be given to cocoa farming households based on their social collateral. This would enhance cocoa farming households' access to productive resource and thus achieve financial leverage that would further boost farm productivity. Enhanced farm productivity would improve their food security status.