Agricultural Land Deals, Farm Land Access And Livelihood Choice Decisions In Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT 

The study was conducted in Kassena Nankana East Municipal and Gushiegu District where there are highest recordings of registered medium and large scale lands within the northern belt of Ghana. This study assesses how agricultural land grabs affect farm households’ access to land and also their access to other alternative land based resources and services. It then considers livelihood strategy adaptation among farm households within affected communities in Northern Ghana. A two stage sampling technique was used to stratify communities into affected and non-affected, then 302 respondents were randomly sampled to gather primary data for the study. The study compared affected and non-affected responses using a t-test analysis and found out that the non-affected respondents unexpectedly had difficult access to alternative land based assets than affected communities. Also, Chi-square analysis on fallowing decision of farmers showed that direct impact category of respondents had the shortest of fallow periods.  Using a multinomial logit model, the study estimated how acquisition specific characteristics influence the decision of a farm household to choose either intensive, semi-intensive or low intensification farming regime. The study adds to existing argument on commercial land deals that farmers in affected communities do not benefit directly from these arrangements but rather suffer limited farm land access and low land fallowing periods. The study also found that actors engaged in land deals within the study area are mostly endogenous investors rather than transnational. Farmers within affected communities were also found to engage investors to negotiate for rights to use parts of acquired lands. These agreements results in the payment of token to investors and represents an emerging form of land commoditization.  Longer years of acquisition within affected communities also contributed to farmers’ choice of intensive farming. The study recommends among other suggestions that regulation must be put across to check the limits to which medium and large scale lands can be taken from a particular district in Ghana. Also, community-investor partnerships are also to be prioritized for gaining access to government and donor backed acquisitions. Commercialisation of land must then also be accompanied by efforts to diversify livelihoods away from land-based systems.