EXAMINING SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS OF SMALLHOLDER WOMEN RICE FARMERS: A CASE STUDY OF GARU AND TEMPANE DISTRICTS, GHANA

Abstract

Purpose: Past studies generally agree that gender-based socio-economic constraints in the agricultural sector negatively affect the growth of the agricultural sector in Ghana and other African countries. The government statistics showed that the Upper East Region of Ghana experienced a substantial decline in productivity, but few studies have clarified what socio-economic factors actually contributed to this decline. This study attempts to identify these factors and the extent to which these factors affect women farmers.
 Methodology: We conducted a preliminary field survey in Ghana among farmers and government officials and identified several possible factors, such as poor access to tractor services and improved seeds, the patriarchal traditional land tenure system, insufficient credit availability, limited extension services and lower fertilizer usage. On the basis of our preliminary survey, we designed a questionnaire to gain insights into local productivity and women’s roles. We selected ten farming communities in Garu and Tempane districts of the Upper East Region. Through purposive sampling, we distributed the questionnaire among 14 smallholder women rice farmers randomly from each community (a total of 140 respondents). We obtained valid answers from all.
 Findings: The results showed that women rice farmers identified the following factors that had inhibited their production activities: obtaining credit from financial institutions (95%), the limited availability of extension services (85%), the high cost of fertilizer (78%), poor accessibility to certified seeds (74%), patriarchal land tenure system (63%) and poor access to tractor service (59%). We then conducted a multiple regression analysis and found that respondents’ education, rice farming experience and income significantly influenced how they identified these constraints.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Agricultural productivity has been largely framed within a context of agricultural science, breeding, or food security, but not so much within a context of gender studies. In many rural areas of northern Ghana, women remain invisible, inaccessible and marginal in terms of policy support, scholarly investigation, and socio-economic equity; yet they are the very backbone of Ghana’s agricultural economy. This paper offers locally ground insights as a result of long-term field experience that allowed us to reach many of these marginalized local farmers. Whereas abortion and pro-life choice can be some of the on-going concerns for women in developed countries, local farmers in our study area share with us somewhat different and unique insights on how gender equity can be interconnected to food productivity.