Implications of Customary Land Rights Inequalities for Food Security: A Study of Smallholder Farmers in Northwest Ghana
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Land Rights and Tenure Security
1.2. Customary Land Rights Inequalities and Food Production
1.3. Food Security and Its Dimensions
2. Methodology
2.1. Study Area
- (1)
- Allodial title: the highest interest in land, communally owned by members of the landowning group.
- (2)
- Customary freehold or usufructuary interest: family land use rights held perpetually by members holding the allodial title.
- (3)
- Common law freehold right: acquired through express grant from the allodial owner or customary freeholder, either through sale, gift or other arrangements, and usually held by non-members.
- (4)
- Leasehold, sub-leases and customary tenancy rights.
2.2. Selection of Participants for Focus Group Discussions
2.3. Data Analyses
3. Results
3.1. Nature of Land Rights Inequalities
3.2. Implications for Farming, Food Availability and Food Security
3.3. Other Implications
“How can you purport to be establishing a university for people and you are indirectly sacking us and not making any arrangements to resettle or even compensate us? Worst of it, you will not even allow us to squat until actual construction commences. Just because we have no one to speak for us, that is why our age-old land rights are being trampled on and making life for us miserable with nearly no hope for the future of our children. What manner of development is this? Therefore, you see why peaceful co-existence is eluding all of us (landowners and settlers). This also negatively affects our freedom to work on the little farmlands since we fear attacks from even developers thereby affecting both farming activities and food security.”
“We currently survive by negotiating with land developers who purchased our farms from our landlords to ‘squat’ and farm on their plots until the lands are needed for development. However, when this fails, we encroach on people’s plots knowing that eviction is imminent. How can we possibly be assured of food security under these conditions?”
“The land is just not available for us now, so on what can we produce our own food if not on it? Given the current landlessness among us—settlers, our youth and middle-aged people have been pushed out of the community and out of frustration may do “anything” [referring to unlawful means] to provide for their wives and children. Now you talk about buying food from the market, even though there is some food in the market, but our main source of income is the same farming that we can no longer do effectively. So, it is difficult to meet our food needs if our land rights and tenure issues remain unresolved.”
4. Discussions
4.1. Nature of Land Rights Inequalities
4.2. Implications for Food Production, Food Availability and Food Security
4.3. Indirect Implications
4.4. Conclusion and Recommendations
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Landowner | Male Focus Groups | Number of Participants | Female Focus Groups | Number of Participants | Group Total | Participants Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elderly | 3 | 31 | 3 | 34 | 6 | 65 |
Disabled | 3 | 29 | 3 | 26 | 6 | 55 |
“youth” | 3 | 36 | 3 | 35 | 6 | 71 |
Total | 9 | 96 | 9 | 95 | 18 | 191 |
Settler | Male Focus Groups | Number of Participants | Female Focus Groups | Number of Participants | Group Total | Participants Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elderly | 3 | 34 | 3 | 35 | 6 | 69 |
Disabled | 3 | 27 | 3 | 29 | 6 | 56 |
Middle age | 3 | 36 | 3 | 36 | 6 | 72 |
Total | 9 | 97 | 9 | 100 | 18 | 197 |
Concepts Guiding This Research | Analytical Dimensions, Categories and Understanding |
---|---|
Customary land rights Land rights inequalities Food security Smallholder farming | Rights derived from local practices through successive generations. The practices in which some have more rights that are stronger while others have fewer and weaker rights. Food security focuses on availability and accessibility constraints that are likely to influence nutrition and stability. Smallholder farming refers to subsistence farming but with the opportunity to sell excess produce. |
Land rights | Exclusive entitlements derived from accessing and holding land in either customary or more formal settings |
The relation between formal and informal rights (institutions) | It is a top-down relationship, in which the formal statutory institutions led by the Lands Commission (LC) supervises the customary institutions through documentation, concurrence issuance, verification of claims etc. Informal customary norms and practices may be regarded by the state as primarily important in land matters. They are however, still subject to legal processes administered through the courts. |
The dynamic interplay among various institutions. Customary, statutory/legal/formal & mixed feature institutions | CLSs were formed as an improvement of the customary system as a lands office operated by landowners with minimal external support. The LC is the state agency that oversees all land matters in Ghana. Private land organisations—Meridia and others carry out land documentation on a small-scale for households, families or communities in Ghana. Such documents are subject to the LC’s approval. |
The dynamic interplay between actors and institutions | The actors/stakeholders include landowners and settlers, men and women, able-bodied and disabled, and elderly and middle-aged. such actors work through the formal and customary institutions in all matters relating to land—allocations, rights and disputes resolution etc. However, the legal authority of the courts and statutory bodies such as the LC are final in resolving disagreements. |
S/n | Land Right/Tenure Arrangement | Settler Females | Landowner Females | Settler Males | Landowner Males |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ownership | - | - | - | * |
2 | Occupy/use/enjoy | * | * | * | * |
3 | Inheritance by heirs | - | - | * | * |
4 | Transfer to others | - | - | *- | * |
5 | Sale | - | - | - | * |
6 | Develop/improve | - | - | * | * |
7 | Cultivate/produce | * | * | * | * |
8 | Access credit | - | - | - | *- |
9 | Enforcement | *- | *- | * | * |
10 | Pecuniary/monetary | * | * | * | * |
11 | Sharecropping | - | - | - | *- |
12 | Rental | - | - | - | *- |
13 | Purchase | *- | *- | * | - |
14 | Give as gift | - | - | - | * |
15 | Common property | *- | *- | *- | *- |
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Nara, B.B.; Lengoiboni, M.; Zevenbergen, J. Implications of Customary Land Rights Inequalities for Food Security: A Study of Smallholder Farmers in Northwest Ghana. Land 2020, 9, 178. https://doi.org/10.3390/land9060178
Nara BB, Lengoiboni M, Zevenbergen J. Implications of Customary Land Rights Inequalities for Food Security: A Study of Smallholder Farmers in Northwest Ghana. Land. 2020; 9(6):178. https://doi.org/10.3390/land9060178
Chicago/Turabian StyleNara, Baslyd B., Monica Lengoiboni, and Jaap Zevenbergen. 2020. "Implications of Customary Land Rights Inequalities for Food Security: A Study of Smallholder Farmers in Northwest Ghana" Land 9, no. 6: 178. https://doi.org/10.3390/land9060178