Capitalist Rice Farming and Land Allocation in Northern Ghana

Abstract

The recent introduction of capitalist rice farming in the Gbedembilisi Valley (a river valley located in the south-east of the Builsa Traditional Area in the upper Region of Ghana) has given rise to the emergence of a small class of mainly stranger and partly absentee farmers within local peasant communities. This class of capitalist rice farmers has been highly dependent on local peasant communities for the allocation of land and for the supply of labor. This article shows that land allocation has resulted in: 1) various abuses of customary land law by both local chiefs and stranger farmers; 2) a protracted conflict between. local peasant communities, on the one hand, and stranger farmers and the state, on the other, about control over Builsa lands, the so-called Gbedembilisi Valley Dispute; and 3) and attempt by the Builsa Traditional Council to effect changes in the customary land law in order to regulate land allocation to capitalist rice farmers. Notes.