The adoption of new technologies is one of the most important components of the economic development for small farmers in Africa. Agricultural intensification by dissemination and adoption of improved agricultural technologies plays an important role in tackling poverty and food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The causal link between agricultural innovation and nutrition has become an important research question with relevant implications for policymaking. In particular, this research project aims to shed light on female nutrition with a specific focus on the mediating role of female empowerment, using new panel data on oil palm growers in Ghana provided by the APRA- Future Agricultures Consortium. Technology will be defined as the use of agrochemicals, irrigation or intercropping since after a preliminary and technical analysis about how to grow oil palm they turned out to be essential practices in the country. A structural equations model and an endogenous switching regression model to control for potential endogeneity of women's empowerment and technology adoption will be applied to investigate the mediating role of female empowerment in the nexus between technology adoption and women's dietary diversity.
Expected study results will be relevant to design proper interventions and policies promoting women's empowerment and technology adoption that, in turn, could enhance individual and household welfare.
These are the the key expected results of the proposed research project:
- Female empowerment is a relevant mediator between innovation and women's nutrition. The more women are empowered, the more aware of their nutritional needs they are and the more they are able to diversify their diets.
- This empirical evidence will help policymakers providing information about which agricultural technology suits better the needs and the ability of female farmers in Ghana, which in turn can increase their bargaining power within the household and their dietary diversity.
These outcomes would boost knowledge on key research questions in the field of development economics, such as what is the nexus between innovation, female empowerment and women's nutrition, which has relevant implications for policymaking and for the implementation of development policies.
Besides, research on these three elements considered together is still scarce.
All in all, the objective of this research project is to shed light on some key and overlook issues related to agricultural technology adoption and more in general in development microeconomics. Using new data and new methods, the aim is to provide several contributions to the existing literature which, to the best of knowledge of the state-of-the-art in the field, are only scarcely investigated.