{"id":13625,"date":"2026-06-20T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/the-more-crops-farmers-grow-the-more-food-nutrition-and-income-secure-they-are-study\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:37:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:37:44","slug":"the-more-crops-farmers-grow-the-more-food-nutrition-and-income-secure-they-are-study","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/the-more-crops-farmers-grow-the-more-food-nutrition-and-income-secure-they-are-study\/","title":{"rendered":"The more crops farmers grow, the more food, nutrition and income secure they are \u2013 study"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is common for smallholder farmers in Africa to grow multiple crops on their farms. However, policies do not often consider crop diversity as an option for fostering innovation in agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers set out to examine how crop diversity relates to household food security and income derived from the sale of multiple crops. To find out whether specialization or diversification is a better strategy for agricultural development, a study was recently carried out in Northern Ghana by Mauricio Bellon<\/a> from Comisi\u00f3n Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad<\/em><\/a> (CONABIO, Mexico); and researchers from Institut International d'Agriculture Tropicale<\/a> (IITA, \u00a0Ghana), International Food Policy Research Institute<\/a> (IFPRI, USA), and University of Naples Federico II<\/a> (Italy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Smallscale farmers in Africa generally grow an average of 5 crops on the same piece of land which is good for both food and income security.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le \u00e9tudier<\/a>, recently published in World Development, <\/em>randomly surveyed 637 households concluding that, on average, smallholder farmers in northern Ghana grow three -and some even eight- different crops on their farms. This diversity allows farmers to earn more from their marketed crops, as well as to enjoy more consistent and diversified meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This finding provides evidence that a diversification strategy is better than a specialization one in this specific setting. Indeed, increasing crop diversity opens market opportunities for farmers, while still contributing to strengthening food security. Given these results, crop diversification seems to be more beneficial to these farmers than specialization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince successful policy needs to address the priorities of their target beneficiaries, a diversification strategy is more likely to positively affect beneficiaries \u0301wellbeing in Northern Ghana,\u201d the researchers say.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is common for smallholder farmers in Africa to grow multiple crops on their farms. However, policies do not often consider crop diversity as an option for fostering innovation in agriculture.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":13626,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[530],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[44],"news-type":[],"hub":[61],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[198],"class_list":["post-13625","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crop-productionnutrition","location-ghana","hub-western-africa","item-year-198"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/13625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/13625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30452,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/13625\/revisions\/30452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=13625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}