Gendered and Generational Analyses of Farm Households' Livelihood Diversification in Ghana

Abstract

As households diversify their livelihoods, their credit demands will also be diversified. This creates competition among the livelihood activities pursued by farm households for credit and other productive resources. Whereas some households may be expanding the same livelihood activities to enjoy economies of scale (stepping up), others are expanding into other livelihood activities (stepping out). Better still, others are just maintaining their activities, levels of livelihood activities they engage in (hanging in). Whichever approach is adopted has specific implications for resource demands, allocation, and utilization. This chapter examines the gendered implications of livelihoods diversification for household credit demands and allocations using mixed methods. Most farm households in contemporary Ghana this chapter concludes are diversifying out of agriculture. The implication of this is that the number of households demanding credit for non-farm livelihood activities is increasing at the expense of farm livelihood activities.