Currently, almost 33 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are undernourished
and is the only region of the world where hunger is projected to worsen over the next two decades.
According to the World Food Program, over 2 million people were most vulnerable of becoming
food insecure throughout Ghana in 2012. The issues of food security in northern Ghana has gained
a top priority in many areas of policy making. However, the prevalence of food inadequacy as a
result of insufficient resources to access food among individual household has led to increasing
food insecurity in the country. By using the sixth round of Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS)
data conducted from 2012/2013, the study aimed at analysing food security status across farming
households in Eastern region and compare it to the Northern region of Ghana. The food security
index generated from Cost-of-Calorie method was adopted and the recommended daily
requirement was used to determine the household food security status. The factors influencing
household food security status was then examined using logistic regression model. The analysis
indicates that almost half of the sampled farming households in Eastern region (42.7%) and
Northern region (46.0%) were food insecure. The depth of food insecurity indicates that farming
households in Eastern region consumed 34% less than their daily calorie requirement while
farming households in Northern region consumed 40% less than the requirement. The logistic
result shows that monthly household income, off-farm activities and total quantity of own farm
production positively and significantly influenced households’ food security in Eastern region. It
was revealed that household size negatively and significantly affected food security in Eastern
region. Further, monthly household income, total quantity of own farm production and dependency
ratio positively and significantly affected households’ food security in Northern region. The factors
that were negatively and significantly affecting household food security in Northern region
included the size of households and the number of years spent in education. Policies which targeted
to increase income of farmers through the provision of other activities aside farming, to help boost
total yields of farming households, and intensive family planning awareness raising programs have
key roles to play in these areas in order to improve households’ food security in Ghana. The study
recommends special training that relate to agriculture so that farmers can utilize whatever
knowledge or skills acquired in their production activities to achieve food security in the future.