Food Security in Northern Ghana: Does Income from Shea Based Livelihoods Matter?

ABSTRACT Shea is an important resource that support livelihoods and food security in northern Ghana. This study assesses the contribution of shea’s contribution to collectors’ income and food security. Shea income contributes about 21% to total income. Using The Food Consumption Score (FCS) to determine household food security status of shea collector households, majority of households (75.3%) were found to lack high food security. The Ordered Logit Regression (OLR) model was used to estimate the effect of shea income on household food security. The effect of shea income on food security was minimal. Income obtained from combining shea collection, farming and butter production has the highest effect on household food security. Other factors found to positively affect food security were attainment of basic education, farm size, picking nuts from family field, number of household’s food contributors while household size had an inverse effect on food security. The study recommends the encouragement of positive gender relations that allow women to have access to shea resources and advocates training to build capacity of collectors in other livelihood activities.