Does joint agricultural decision-making improve food security among smallholder farmers?

ABSTRACT Household agricultural decision-making is crucial in navigating household food insecurity amid increasing climate change and variability. In smallholder farming contexts in Ghana and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), decision-making is often the culturally ascribed role of the male family head. Yet joint household decision-making has the potential to leverage the diverse knowledge and capacities of household members to meet the nutritional and dietary needs of households. Using a cross-sectional survey involving 1100 smallholder farmer households, we examined the association between intra-household decision-making arrangements and food security in northern Ghana. Results from the logistic regression analysis indicated that households that practiced joint decision-making (OR = 1.71; p ≤ 0.001) had significantly higher odds of being food secure compared to households that practiced sole decision-making. Other noteworthy socio-economic and agricultural practices that were significantly associated with household food security included household size, marriage type, wealth, and post-harvest loss. The findings have demonstrated that household decision-making arrangements influence how household members negotiate and reconcile preferences in the allocation of resources and consequentially household food security outcomes. Therefore, policies that seek to address food insecurity and other socio-economic challenges in such contexts must critically consider household decision-making arrangements. Gender transformative policy approaches that are inclusive of both women and men in a comprehensive dialog on collective cooperation in household decision-making and control of productive resources should be employed.