1. Introduction
Fish farming is becoming very popular in developing countries because of its ability to improve the welfare of particularly less wealthy and landless-food insecure households through employment, income generation and nutrition from direct consumption [
1]. In Africa and Asia, several developmental interventions related to fish consumption, aquaculture, and capture fisheries have aimed at improving the nutritional status of households through direct dietary intake, production and increase in household income [
1]. In addition to the provision of food, fish farming has the potential to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing poverty and halving hunger through creation of employment, community development [
2] and consequently has been adopted by many Asian and African national governments.
In 2013, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development was created in Ghana out of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to give more emphasis and support to the industry. The ministry, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), developed a Ghana National Aquaculture Development Plan (GNADP) to increase profitability and production up to 100,000 metric tons by 2016 [
3]. The GNADP also aimed at improving the capacity for fish farmers through training in best management practices and feed formulation [
4]. Similar capacity training was also conducted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The World Bank, in collaboration with the Government of Ghana (GoG), also developed the Ghana Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Plan (GFADP) [
5]. The GFADP serves as a roadmap by which aquaculture will contribute to poverty alleviation, food and nutritional security, employment generation, increased income and economic development as part of the government’s efforts to reduce poverty under the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II) [
4] and the Millennium Development Goals. The Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE) and Rural Wealth (RW) are among the few local non-governmental organizations that are actively engaged in aquaculture projects [
6].
There are two main aquaculture production systems in Ghana-ponds and cages. Pond aquaculture constitutes the main production system and is adopted by small to medium-scale farms for the production of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in a polyculture semi-intensive system. Large-scale enterprises using pond systems adopt monoculture in intensive tilapia production. The cage culture sector also comprises small, medium and large-scale commercial enterprises engaged in intensive tilapia production in natural water bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers. One of the major constraints to aquaculture production is economic access to commercially formulated feed. Most of the available commercially formulated feed on the market are imported, and relatively expensive. Feed generally accounts for between 40–60 percent of production costs. Consequently, small to medium scale producers tend to formulate feed on the farm from a wide range of local feed ingredients including agricultural by-products such as maize bran, wheat bran, groundnut husks, various leaves, vegetables, etc. Producers may use the ingredients directly, make simple mixtures of ingredients, or compound ingredients, but these are generally of poor quality. Some producers use commercially formulated feed and supplement with farm-made feeds.
The level of production from aquaculture in Ghana increased from approximately 19,092 metric tons in 2011 to 44,515 metric tons in 2015 [
7]. From 2009 to 2012, cage aquaculture production experienced an increase from 4912 metric tons to 24,249 metric tons [
6,
8]. The growth in production is mainly market-driven, with diversified and increased sales of aquaculture products. Economically, the expanded market opportunities for aquaculture small businesses and fish farmers ultimately lead to farm sustainability and increased profitability for businesses and farmers. There are also linkages to economic development in communities, which bring improvements in the rural agricultural economy. In addition, the growth of the aquaculture sub-sector and accompanying expanded activities have social implications including provision of employment and other social benefits to communities, especially rural communities along the Volta lake. However, there have been growing concerns about the sustainability of cage aquaculture in the Volta lake in Ghana because of the potential effects on the lake including biodiversity, escapes and effluent discharges [
6,
9]. However, given adequate regulatory infrastructure, aquaculture in Ghana can develop towards a sustainable alternative solution for the supply of seafood due to the decline in wild capture fisheries.
The per capita consumption of fish for the average Ghanaian is about 25 kg per annum, making Ghana one of the highest fish consumer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fish represents about 60% of the animal protein consumed in Ghanaian homes [
6]. The commonest types of fish consumed is tilapia and cat fish which are the most commonly farmed fish as well [
10]. The empirical question that needs to be answered is whether fish farming contributes to a household’s food security/nutritional quality in Ghana. If it does, in what ways? A country’s socioeconomic development depends on the welfare of its citizens, particularly their health.
The food insecurity situation in Ghana is more about access and stability than availability. Food insecurity is a national issue in Ghana due to widespread poverty. The problem exists in both rural and urban areas with the rural areas being the most affected. Ghana’s food insecurity is heightened by irregularities in the seasons and production. The latter is highly dependent on rainfall, high food prices and low incomes at the household level [
10]. The most food insecure regions in Ghana are the three Northern regions and the least food insecure areas are Greater Accra and the Western regions [
11].
The concept of food security is measured in so many ways due to lack of proper assessment of the different aspects of it [
12]. In estimating the impact of technology adoption on food security, for example, proxies for food security include the use of household income and expenditure; others have also tried to use production measures [
13]. Synthetic poverty indices have been used in some studies [
14]. All these measures conclude that the adoption of an improved practice has a positive impact on the welfare of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and contributes to the reduction of poverty. These measures, however, have limitations, mainly on how much impact can be captured with money and production [
12]. Other indicators developed and validated by the World Food Program (WFP) and other organizations include Coping Strategies Index (CSI), Reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI), Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale (HFIAS), the Household Hunger Scale (HHS), Food Consumption Score (FCS), Household Dietary Diversity Scale (HDDS) and a self-assessed measure of food security (SAFS) [
15].
Several factors that are critical to the nutritional decisions made by the household are the focus in studies of household nutrition. The common factors identified in the literature are income, tastes, education, family size and composition, and market price [
16]. In Bangladesh, it was observed that even though fish is quite expensive, consumption in small quantities makes a significant difference in contributing to the nutritional quality of the diets of poor people [
17]. In the central region of Malawi, a study of fish farming and non-fish farming households over a period of four weeks revealed no significant differences between households in terms of nutritional status. Fish farming households cultured the fish mainly for selling purposes and not for consumption; fish consumption by producing households was very low [
18].
A study was carried out to evaluate the influence of food insecurity on the malnutrition of children. Using a sample of children aged 6–36 months residing in both rural and urban areas of Tamale in northern Ghana, access of households to food was measured using the Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale (HFIAS), Food Consumption Score (FCS), and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) [
19]. The determinants that influenced malnutrition of children included wealth index, body mass index of the mother, mother’s educational level, the area of residence and access to portable water. A study in Ghana revealed that even though poorer households had successfully adopted aquaculture, the impacts could not be determined from their livelihoods compared to non-poor fish farming households [
20]. The author explained that the adoption of aquaculture was dependent on household characteristics and the level of knowledge about aquaculture and concluded that the level of impact is largely dependent on the socio-economic status of the household as well as institutional and infrastructural resources available to them.
This paper examined the impact of fish farming within the framework of an agricultural innovation since it involves the use of technology, which deviates from the traditional farming activities. The impact of a technology intervention on income, expenditure and other components of food security may be positive or negative for the household. We use data on all ten regions of Ghana, but most fish farmers are located along the Volta Lake in the Eastern, Brong Ahafo and Volta regions, making the decision to engage not random.
Even though fish farming has become an integral part of the efforts of the Ghanaian Government to reduce poverty and improve food security, there is no study on the assessment of how participating in fish farming impact the nutritional quality of farming households. The main objective is to identify the direction of impact and the pathway(s) of fish farming on household nutritional quality. We hypothesize that fish farming households have more diversified diets than non-fish farming households. The assumption is that engaging in fish farming will increase steady income flow and access to fish for household’s consumption. Households will further be able to purchase and consume more diverse and nutritious food items, particularly vegetables, meat, dairy and fresh fruits.
The measure of food security is proxied by the World Food Program’s Food Consumption Score (FCS). The correlation between fish farming and food security is estimated using the Average Treatment on the Treated (ATT) under the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) framework. We address three main gaps in the literature on the impact of fish farming on household welfare. First, most of the impact studies have focused mainly on agricultural households without separating them into different sectors including fisheries and aquaculture. Secondly, the household welfare measures have focused on poverty alleviation and income growth and very rarely on nutritional improvements. Lastly, we address the lack of assessment of the counterfactual situation if the treatment had not been received, i.e., if fish farming had not been adopted. We use a non-parametric matching approach, the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to address this issue.