Analysis of Rural Household Poverty and Farmers’ Decision on Child Labour Nexus Using Multinomial Logit Model

This paper investigates the relationship between rural household poverty and farmers' choice of child labour in the cocoa sector. In line with this objective, the multinomial logit model was fitted to data gathered from 150 farmers residing in different communities in the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality in Ghana. The model explained a moderate proportion of the total variability in the data (thus, Negelkerke Pseudo R - square= 0.634; Cox and Snell Pseudo R- Square= 0.572). Our results revealed that, farmers' decision on child labour is as a response to the grinding poverty experienced in the rural areas. This study demonstrates that productivity of farm land and quality of house are useful proxies for wealth. The productivity of farm land positively affects farmers' choice of farm work and schooling combination but negatively related to their choice of using children in exclusive farm work. Moreover, the quality of household negatively affects farmers' choice of exclusive farm work but positively affect their choice of exclusive schooling. The study recommends that, any policy that is geared towards eliminating child labour should be channelled through improvement in the wealth of farmers such as productivity of farm land.