Abstract:
The study examines the relationship between food security and trade liberalization
in the context of Ghana using time series data from 1986 to 2016. The sum of
imports and export over GDP is used as the key variable to measure the trade
liberalization of the economy. Other than the key variable of trade liberalization,
the study employs five variables namely food production index, consumer price
index, real GDP, arable land, and reserve of foreign exchange to assess their
effect on food availability which add to improve food security. The ARDL
approach and the ECM were used to estimate the long run and short run effects of
trade liberalization on food security respectively. The Granger causality test was
also conducted to find the causal relationship between trade liberalization and
food security. The findings indicated that trade liberalization positively affects
food security both in the long run and short run. It also found a unidirectional
causality from trade liberalization to food security implying that trade
liberalization causes food security but food security does not cause trade
liberalization. Moreover, with the exception of consumer price index and real
GDP in the long run which have negative effect on food security, the other
variables indicated a positive effect on food security in both the long run and short
run. It is therefore, recommended that the Ministry of Trade and Industry should
promote trade agricultural products especially food in order to improve the food
security of the nation since more food can be made available through trade.
