Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western Ghana
Social capital is considered one of the pertinent drivers of inclusive development for rural farmers. However, in scientific discourses, little is known about the determinants and types of social capital available to smallholder farmers and the consequential livelihood implications in Sub Saharan Af...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Cogent Food & Agriculture |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311932.2024.2353670 |
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| author | Kenneth Tengapoe Issah Baddianaah Abubakar Shehu Yaradua |
| author_facet | Kenneth Tengapoe Issah Baddianaah Abubakar Shehu Yaradua |
| author_sort | Kenneth Tengapoe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Social capital is considered one of the pertinent drivers of inclusive development for rural farmers. However, in scientific discourses, little is known about the determinants and types of social capital available to smallholder farmers and the consequential livelihood implications in Sub Saharan Africa. This paper employed a cross-sectional design involving a questionnaire survey to collect quantitative data from 284 smallholder farmers in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The findings show that smallholder farmers in the region have access to bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Family members, farmer-based organisations, and access to extension services were the dominant bonding, bridging, and linking social capitals respectively at the disposal of smallholder farmers. Socioeconomic and demographic factors such as age, gender, educational attainment, marital status, and religious affiliation were found to have statistically significant associations (p-value < 0.05) with smallholder farmers’ access to social capital. Our findings indicate that access to social capital is a catalyst for sustainable rural development as it is linked directly and indirectly to the attainment of all other assets by smallholder farmers. Thus, efforts towards eliminating hunger and poverty—SDG 2 and 1 by the government of Ghana must prioritize facilitating smallholder farmers’ access to social capital. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-21e22ba5b4dd45cb85db5f39d5436e6d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2331-1932 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cogent Food & Agriculture |
| spelling | doaj-art-21e22ba5b4dd45cb85db5f39d5436e6d2024-12-13T09:52:52ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Food & Agriculture2331-19322024-12-0110110.1080/23311932.2024.2353670Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western GhanaKenneth Tengapoe0Issah Baddianaah1Abubakar Shehu Yaradua2Department of Geography, Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, GhanaDepartment of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, William V.S. Tubman University, Harper City, Maryland County, LiberiaDepartment of Soil Science, College of Agriculture and Food Science, William V.S. Tubman University, Harper City, Maryland County, LiberiaSocial capital is considered one of the pertinent drivers of inclusive development for rural farmers. However, in scientific discourses, little is known about the determinants and types of social capital available to smallholder farmers and the consequential livelihood implications in Sub Saharan Africa. This paper employed a cross-sectional design involving a questionnaire survey to collect quantitative data from 284 smallholder farmers in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The findings show that smallholder farmers in the region have access to bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Family members, farmer-based organisations, and access to extension services were the dominant bonding, bridging, and linking social capitals respectively at the disposal of smallholder farmers. Socioeconomic and demographic factors such as age, gender, educational attainment, marital status, and religious affiliation were found to have statistically significant associations (p-value < 0.05) with smallholder farmers’ access to social capital. Our findings indicate that access to social capital is a catalyst for sustainable rural development as it is linked directly and indirectly to the attainment of all other assets by smallholder farmers. Thus, efforts towards eliminating hunger and poverty—SDG 2 and 1 by the government of Ghana must prioritize facilitating smallholder farmers’ access to social capital.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311932.2024.2353670Social capitalsmallholder agriculturefarmer-based organisationsrural livelihoodsnorth-western GhanaManuel Tejada, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain |
| spellingShingle | Kenneth Tengapoe Issah Baddianaah Abubakar Shehu Yaradua Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western Ghana Cogent Food & Agriculture Social capital smallholder agriculture farmer-based organisations rural livelihoods north-western Ghana Manuel Tejada, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain |
| title | Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western Ghana |
| title_full | Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western Ghana |
| title_fullStr | Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western Ghana |
| title_full_unstemmed | Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western Ghana |
| title_short | Access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices: the case of smallholder farmers in North-Western Ghana |
| title_sort | access to social capital and smallholder agricultural practices the case of smallholder farmers in north western ghana |
| topic | Social capital smallholder agriculture farmer-based organisations rural livelihoods north-western Ghana Manuel Tejada, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311932.2024.2353670 |
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