Low-cost soybean input bundles impact women farmers’ subsistence livelihood traps: evidence from Ghana

The Soybean Uptake and Network Survey was administered to a random sample of 832 smallholder male and female farmers in northern Ghana to explore gender and other factors related to soybean production. We investigated the effect of receiving a Soybean Success Kit (i.e., certified seed, fertilizer, inoculum) on soybean yield and income from soybean, controlling for factors such as gender. This analysis includes farmers who 1) resided in districts where Kits were distributed, 2) planted soybean in the past 12 months, and 3) for whom we had complete information for district and gender (n = 371). When results were disaggregated by gender among Kit recipients, average soybean yield (ASY) for males was 108% and average soybean income (ASI) was 97% of that for females. When results were disaggregated by gender among Kit non-recipients, ASY for males was 142% and ASI was 147% of that for females. When results for males were disaggregated by whether the respondent received a Kit, ASY for male Kit recipients was 113% and ASI was 112% of that for male non-recipients. When results for females were disaggregated by whether the respondent received a Kit, ASY for female Kit recipients was 148% and ASI was 170% of that for female non-recipients. These results suggest that providing smallholder female farmers with access to low-cost (˂USD6) input bundles to which they customarily have little or no access can help eliminate the gender gap in agricultural productivity. These results may be applicable to other sub-Saharan Africa countries, where targeting smallholder female farmers as input bundle beneficiaries may positively impact agricultural productivity.