Farmers' response to COVID-19 disruptions in the food systems in Ghana: the case of cropland allocation decision.

Abstract

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health issue with disruption effects in the agricultural food systems especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where most of the population is engaged in the agricultural sector. While prices of food commodities continue to increase, farmers are likely to be food insecure or market-oriented by allocating land resources between commercial and staple crops. This study provides new evidence on the determining factors of cropland allocation decisions within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employs the probit and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models on 309 farm households. The results reveal that socio-economic, production, institutional, and political factors significantly influence the choice of cropland allocation decisions and the size of cropland allocated to legumes and cereals. Beyond these factors, we find that COVID-19 education increases land area allocated to staples while farmers' perception that COVID-19 will impact negatively on agricultural production leads to an increase in the area under commercial crop (soybean) production. The result suggests that promoting farmer education on the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and understanding farmer perceptions of the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 will guide future adaptation and mitigation strategies as well as determining the "best" possible cropland allocation decision.