article · PLoS ONE
This study investigated the human wellbeing outcomes of involvement in industrial crop production, specifically sugarcane, oil palm, and jatropha, in Ghana. It compared objective wellbeing indicators, such as household income, consumption, and multidimensional poverty, with subjective measures like life satisfaction and happiness. The research analysed groups involved as plantation workers and smallholders against control groups not involved in such production. Findings indicate that industrial crop smallholders generally had better objective wellbeing than control groups, though involvement did not consistently guarantee benefits. Plantation workers often had similar or worse objective wellbeing, but sometimes benefited, particularly from access to plantation infrastructure, which reduced multidimensional poverty. The study also found that objective and subjective wellbeing measures frequently did not correlate well, underscoring the need to combine both types of indicators for a comprehensive evaluation of agricultural investments.
Understanding the true impact of large-scale agricultural investments on human wellbeing is crucial for effective rural development. This research provides a more nuanced view by combining objective and subjective measures, helping policymakers and development organisations design strategies that genuinely improve the lives of people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This research provides valuable insights for policymakers, development organisations, and investors involved in agricultural projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. It can inform decisions on rural development strategies and investment in industrial crops by highlighting the complex and varied impacts on human wellbeing. This is early-stage research informing policy and strategic planning.
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An extensive body of theoretical work has advocated the use of multiple human wellbeing indicators to assess the outcomes of agricultural investments in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). However, few studies have actually achieved it. This study investigates the human wellbeing outcomes of involvement in industrial crop production in Ghana by comparing the levels of different objective and subjective wellbeing measures for groups involved in industrial crop production as plantation workers and smallholders, and groups not involved (i.e. control groups). We use household income, adult consumption and the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) as indicators of objective wellbeing. We measure subjective wellbeing through self-reported levels of satisfaction with life, worthwhileness, happiness and anxiousness. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analysis is used to assess whether involvement in industrial crop production increases household income and consumption. Overall, for most indicators of objective wellbeing industrial crop outgrowers, smallholders and independent smallholders are better off compared to other groups in their respective sites (in terms of mean scores), but involvement does not necessarily brings human wellbeing benefits (PSM analysis). On the other hand plantation workers are either worse off or have similar level of objective human wellbeing with control groups in their respective sites (in terms of mean scores), but involvement sometimes brings human wellbeing benefits (PSM analysis). However, workers tend to benefit from access to plantation infrastructure, which has a positive effect to their multi-dimensional poverty. In most cases the objective wellbeing measures do not correlate well with self-reported levels of subjective wellbeing. It is important to combine such indicators when evaluating the human wellbeing outcomes of agricultural investments in order to obtain a more comprehensive outlook of whether industrial crop production can become a valuable rural development strategy in SSA.
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DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215433
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