Assessing customary land rights and tenure security variations of smallholder farmers in northwest Ghana

Abstract

Inequalities generally exist in society regarding the distribution of resources including land. This paper assessed inequalities of customary land rights and tenure security among smallholder farmers in northwest Ghana using the social structure theory. This exploratory study adopted focus group discussions, interviews of key informants and key persons in key institutions in the study area. It also used visual manual interpretation of satellite images. It found that male landowners possess the strongest land rights and highest tenure security. Male settlers were next in possessing strong land rights and high tenure security. While all women irrespective of whether they are from landowner or settler groups had the weakest land rights and tenure security. This deviates from the tenets of the social structure theory, which presupposes that women from the landowning group would have stronger rights than settlers (male or female). Fewer building development and vast uncultivated lands revealed by the satellite images, partly contradicts literature suggesting that physical developments cause land scarcity, which may lead to land rights inequalities. This research agrees with literature and concludes that population growth, urbanisation and particularly the anticipation of future land prospects primarily influences current land rights inequalities and tenure insecurity in the area. The findings from this research are useful for identifying this context-based land rights and tenure variations. The research also shows the nature and extent of the variations and therefore gives indications regarding how, who and which land rights need to be strengthened. Besides, this study shows that local communities can be assisted by community leaders and community-based organisations to re-sensitise themselves to protect particularly, the land rights of the vulnerable in society. The study also reveals an essential community potential i.e. their readiness to cooperate with efforts (whether local or external), towards narrowing land rights variations that further marginalises the already marginalised women and male settlers. The paper recommends further studies to identify specific ways to address land rights variations and ensure tenure security among different groups.