Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Vol. 4(2), pp. 014-020, February 2015 ISSN 2327-3151 ©2015 Academe Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

The determinants of subjective well-being among subsistence farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana

Abukari Yakubu* and Robert Aidoo

Department of Agricultural Economics Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology (KNUST), Kumasi – Ghana.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: yakubuabukaridabi@yahoo.com.

Accepted 2 January, 2015

Abstract

Subjective well-being is gaining prominence as an alternate measure of poverty and deprivation. This study examines determinants of subjective well-being among subsistence farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study uses cross-sectional data from 346 households. Since subjective well-being has an inherent ordering, an ordered logit procedure is employed in analysing the determinants of subjective well-being among subsistence farmers. Four livelihood strategies were commonly adopted by subsistence farmers comprising: Agriculture only, Agriculture and nonfarm, Agriculture and off-farm, and the Mixed strategy. Food insecurity and the adoption of Agriculture and off-farm strategy lowered the subjective well-being of subsistence farmers, while household income, social capital, belief in Idol or Islamic worship and human capital increased the subjective well-being of subsistence farmers. It is recommended that policies in the future aimed at addressing deprivation and low subjective well-being should among other things target subsistence farmers who depend on the sale of agricultural labour as a livelihood strategy.

Key words: Subjective well-being, subsistence farmers, livelihood strategy.