Soil and water conservation practices and smallholder farmer multi-activity technical efficiency in northern Ghana

A greater number of the people of northern Ghana are peasants and poor, depending heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods. The poverty is caused partly by inadequate water availability and deteriorating soil conditions. As a result, various organizations promote the use of soil and water conservation practices in the area, but the link between the use of the practices and farmer multi-activity technical efficiency is yet to be shown empirically. The current study thus investigates this link using data from 445 households in the area. The study uses a stochastic input distance function and the results show adoption of conservation practices exerts positive effect on technical efficiency. The results further reveal significant diversification economies in smallholder production with complementarity effects in crop-livestock and livestock-off-farm combinations, and substitutability effects in crop-off-farm combination thereby highlighting the need for a holistic development of both the farm and off-farm sectors. Keywords: Soil and Water Conservation, Technical Efficiency, Diversification Economies, Instrumental Variables, Northern Ghana