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The continuous increase in the population remains a challenge as the demand for food also increases at a greater pace than food production. This study sought to examine the determinants of food security in Ghana using the Ghana Living Standard Survey round seven (GLSS 7) data. Households' food security was measured using a food consumption score (FCS). A partial proportional odds model (PPO) was employed to analyse the drivers of household food security in Ghana. The results showed that being a male household head, engaging in farming, and leaving in rural areas decrease the household's chances of falling into poor and borderline food consumption poverty. The study, therefore, concluded that households in Ghana may be food-consumption-poor due to factors such as low level of education, employment status, and the location of the household, that is being in a rural area. Policies that provide employment and bridge the rural-urban divide, increasing access to education, particularly, nutrition education will enhance household food security status.

Abstract This study employs stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) correcting for sample selection bias, to determine technical efficiency (TE) and technology gap using cross-sectional data collected from 543 rice farmers in Northern Ghana. The results showed that corrected sample selection TE estimates were marginally higher. Without the appropriate corrections, inefficiency is overestimated, while the gap in performance between irrigation farmers and their rainfed counterparts is underestimated. We recommend that authorities in Ghana should work with development partners, especially in the implementation of small village-dam projects, and also to expand the existing irrigation schemes. Bunds should also be constructed around rice production valleys across northern Ghana so that farmers could expand their farm sizes to increase production. It is important also that the government’s input subsidy programme be structured to cater for experienced and younger farmers who consider agriculture as a business.