Poverty and Risk Attitudes: The Case of Cassava Farmers in Awutu-senya District of the Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

Ghanas agriculture is characterized by low productivity, low farm incomes and low levels of technological adoption and use of inefficient production techniques. This poor state of Ghanas agriculture is related to farmersattitudes towards risk in the ad option of new production techniques, as well as risk in the production and socioeconomic environment. Having realized that poverty is a major constraining factor in the farmers production and socio-economic environment, the study therefore sought specific ally to: measure the poverty situation among cassava farmers in the study area; analyze the risk attitudes of cassava farmers and determine the effect of poverty on risk attitudes of the farmers. The study area is Awutu Senya District. A random sampling te chnique was used for the selection of respondents. Data were generated using structured interviews and field visits. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Foster Greer Thorbecke poverty measures, Equal Certainty Equivalent Risk Model and regression analysis to determine the effects of poverty on the risk attitude of farmers. The result showed that 58% of farmers in the study area were poor and 31% measured the depth or extent of poverty as indicated by the FGT poverty measure. F urthermore, using the equal certainty equivalent risk model of assessing farmersrisk attitudes the study revealed that, as many OriginalResearch Article