Summary
Certification standards have been promoted as a market-led mechanism to ensure their sustainable production. This paper assesses the food security outcomes of certification adoption among cocoa and oil palm smallholders in Ghana by analysing 608 household surveys from two study sites using propensity score matching and multiple standardized metrics of food security such as the Food Consumption Score (FCS), the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and the Coping Strategies Index. The report finds that certified cocoa/oil palm farmers are more food secure than uncertified farmers and food crop farmers across most indicators and group comparisons, however, the differences are for most indicators not substantial or statistically significant (except the HFIAS). Even though certification adoption can improve the livelihoods and yields of farmers, in reality it has marginal effect on food security. This report finds that certification standards would need to emphasize food security in their guidelines, theories of change and support packages to smallholders if they are to enhance food security.