Impact of Food Price Changes on Household Welfare in Ghana

Impact of Food Price Changes on Household Welfare in Ghana
Author: Nicholas Minot
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2013-02-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

In the wake of the global food crisis of 2007–08 and additional price spikes since then, greater attention has been given to the welfare impact of food price increases in developing countries. The standard approach in this type of analysis, proposed by Deaton (1989), is based on income and expenditure data from household surveys. Given the widespread use of this method, it is important to revisit the assumptions behind it and examine the sensitivity of results to those assumptions. In this paper, we explore the distributional impact of higher maize, rice, and food prices in Ghana and analyze the robustness of those results to changes in several key assumptions. The results suggest that higher maize and rice prices have a relatively modest short-term impact on national poverty but significant effects on specific groups of households. As expected, urban households lose from higher grain prices, but a surprisingly large share of rural households also lose because they are net buyers. The results also suggest that the current policy of protecting domestic rice producers with an import tax does not contribute to national poverty reduction, in spite of the fact that rice growers tend to be poor. If we relax the assumption that households do not respond to the higher prices, the effects are more positive or less negative, but only modestly so. On the other hand, if we relax the assumption that producer and consumer prices rise by the same proportion, and instead assume a constant marketing margin, the results change substantially. Because producer prices now rise by a larger proportion than consumer prices, the impact of higher prices is much more positive. These findings highlight the need for more research on the effect of price spikes on marketing margins.

Globalization, Trade and Poverty in Ghana

Globalization, Trade and Poverty in Ghana
Author: Charles Ackah
Publisher: IDRC
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9988647360

Citing a paucity of empirical evidence on the poverty and distributional impacts of trade policy reform in Ghana as the main motivation for this volume, the editors (both of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research at the U. of Ghana) present eleven papers that combine theory and econometric analysis in an effort to assess linkages between globalization, trade, and poverty (including gendered aspects). Specific topics examined include manufacturing employment and wage effects of trade liberalization; the influence of education on trade liberalization impacts on household welfare; trade liberalization and manufacturing firm productivity; the impact of elimination of trade taxes on poverty and income distribution; food prices, tax reforms, and consumer welfare under trade liberalization; impacts on tariff revenues; and impacts on cash cropping, gender, and household welfare; Distributed in the US by Stylus. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Changes in household income, food consumption, and diet quality in urban and rural areas of Ghana during the COVID-19 crisis: Results of 2020 phone surveys

Changes in household income, food consumption, and diet quality in urban and rural areas of Ghana during the COVID-19 crisis: Results of 2020 phone surveys
Author: Ragasa, Catherine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2021-11-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

This study provides an assessment of changes in household income, livelihood sources, food consumption, and diet quality during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis in a sample of households drawn from both urban and rural areas in Ghana. Phone surveys were conducted in June 2020 with 423 urban consumers in Accra and with 369 small-scale crop and fish farmers in rural areas in six regions in middle and southern Ghana. Data was disaggregated by asset quintiles for both the urban and the rural samples. Reduction in incomes were reported by 83 percent of urban households in Accra, mainly due to business closures and lower sales from their trading enterprises. Most households, however, are showing resilience in terms of food consumption, with a majority of urban consumers surveyed maintaining their pre-COVID-19 level of food consumption; only 9 percent of urban consumers reported reductions in food consumption to cope with income loss due to COVID-19. For the respondents in the rural areas in middle and southern Ghana, 76 percent reported income loss, and all reported that their livelihoods had been affected. Thirty-four percent of 2020 minor season crop farmers experienced difficulty in selling their produce, and 43 percent of all sample crop farmers anticipated difficulties in accessing inputs in the 2020 major season, mainly fertilizers and agrochemicals. Of those growing fish, 53 percent experienced difficulty in accessing inputs, mainly feeds; 60 percent reported increased input prices; and 64 percent of those harvesting from March to June 2020 experienced difficulties in selling their fish because of lower demand, lower tilapia prices, and higher transportation costs. Despite farm and nonfarm income losses, a majority of households in the rural sample reported maintaining previous levels of diet diversity and food consumption - only 11 percent reported reducing their food consumption to cope with income loss. Several months into the COVID-19 crisis in Ghana, households in both rural and urban areas showed some resilience in terms of their agricultural production and food consumption. Regular monitoring is needed, however, especially if household savings start to dry up and coping mechanisms become more restrictive.

Transmission of World Food Price Changes to African Markets and Its Effect on Household Welfare

Transmission of World Food Price Changes to African Markets and Its Effect on Household Welfare
Author: Nicholas Minot
Publisher:
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2009
Genre:
ISBN:

The global food crisis of 2007-08 was characterized by a dramatic increase in the prices of agricultural commodities in international markets. Between January 2007 and March 2008, the food price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) rose 61%. Staple food crop prices rose even more steeply: over the same period, the prices of wheat and rice doubled, while that of maize increased by 42%. Since then, food prices have declined somewhat, but prices remain significantly higher than the average in 2006. For example, the average price of rice in 2009 is 90% higher than the average level in 2006 (FAO, 2009). High world prices were transmitted to domestic markets, eroding the purchasing power of urban households and other net buyers of food, forcing them to reduce non-food spending and shift to cheaper foods. Poor urban households were particularly affected because they spend a large share of their income on food. At the national level, food importing countries faced balance of payment pressure as the cost of food imports rose. In addition, the cost of operating food and nutrition programs at the national and international level rose steeply. In dozens of countries, the high prices sparked demonstrations and sometimes riots. A number of countries, including Argentina, India, Russia, and Vietnam, responded by restricting rice and wheat exports in an attempt to keep domestic prices from rising. Finally, at the international level, food aid budgets were stretched, as increased need in developing countries coincided with decreased purchasing power of the World Food Programme and other food aid agencies (Benson et al. 2008).

Ghana: Impacts of the Ukraine and global crises on poverty and food security

Ghana: Impacts of the Ukraine and global crises on poverty and food security
Author: Diao, Xinshen
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 11
Release: 2022-06-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Global food, fuel, and fertilizer prices have risen rapidly in recent months, driven in large part by the fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia. Other factors, such as export bans, have also contributed to rising prices. Palm oil and wheat prices increased by 56 and 100 percent in real terms, respectively, between June 2021 and April 2022, with most of the in-crease occurring since February (Figure 1). Wide variation exists across products, with real maize prices increasing by only 11 percent, and rice prices declining by 13 percent. The price of crude oil and natural gas has also risen substantially, while the weighted average price of fertilizer has doubled. With these changes in global prices, many developing countries and their development partners are concerned about the implications for economic stability, food security, and poverty.