Contested commons: Agricultural modernization, tenure ambiguities and intra-familial land grabbing in Ghana

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Land Use Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol

Contested commons: Agricultural modernization, tenure ambiguities and intra-familial land grabbing in Ghana

T

⁎

Moses Kansangaa, , Peter Andersenb, Kilian Atuoyea, Sarah Mason-Rentonc a

Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, N6A 5C2, Canada Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Fosswinkelsgate 6, 5020, Bergen, Norway c Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, 2329 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada b

A R T I C LE I N FO

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Agricultural modernization Smallholder farming Land tenure Competing claims Intra-familial land grabbing Ghana

Agricultural land in northern Ghana is a common pool resource predominantly governed by longstanding customary land tenure provisions. Following the renewed emphasis at achieving a new green revolution for Africa since the last decade, the government of Ghana has prioritized the provision of improved land preparation technologies to smallholder farmers. Although the uptake of these technologies has introduced speed and efficiency in land preparation, there are concerns about the impacts on customary land tenure systems. Drawing on the experiences of smallholder farmers (n = 60) in northern Ghana using in-depth interviews, we examine the dynamics in contemporary agricultural land access and governance following decades of progressive agricultural modernization. Our findings show that agricultural modernization has intensified agricultural land use and exposed the customary land governance system to more rival claims over agricultural commons that were previously owned and cultivated collectively under the extended family system. Given the current ambiguities in the interpretation of customary tenure and concomitant intra-familial land grabbing among smallholder farmers which we term ‘intimate dispossession’, most farmers have resorted to diverse personal tenure protection strategies towards enhancing their land use rights at the expense of co-family members. We advocate a land reform that prioritizes formal registration of agricultural lands to avoid future ambiguities in ownership and a cycle of farmland take-overs. With increasing pressure from other competing land uses, land banking should be prioritized to ensure tenure security for smallholder farmers, particularly weaker social groups and individuals within families who are often at risk of intra-familial land grabbing.

1. Introduction While modernization of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has intensified in the past two decades (Collier and Dercon, 2014; Hall et al., 2017; Yaro et al., 2017), there is limited empirical analysis of the implications on customary land tenure systems. In an era of increasing pressure from competing resource uses, governing common pool resources has become a challenge in many areas of SSA where livelihoods mostly depend directly on natural resources such as land, forests, and water resources. With the renewed emphasis at achieving a new green revolution for Africa, the deployment of modern agricultural technologies has been prioritized by the government of Ghana in collaboration with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) towards transforming subsistence agriculture (FAO, 2017). Specific policies for advancing this agenda of agriculture

modernization and expansion in the Ghanaian context include the establishment of Agricultural Mechanization Service Centers (AMSECs) and the National Fertilizer Subsidy initiative in 2005 and 2008, respectively. The government imports and allocates tractors to AMSECs located in selected farming communities across the country to provide subsidized and timely ploughing services to farmers in surrounding localities (Benin, 2015; Diao et al., 2012; Houssou et al., 2016). The Fertilizer Subsidy Programme also facilitates access to subsidized chemical fertilizers and weedicides at the local level through district assemblies1 (Banful, 2009; Yawson et al., 2010). As a result of these interventions, there has been a steady progress in the adoption of mechanized land preparation technologies among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana.2 For instance, findings from a World Food Programme survey in 2008 indicate that 44% of households reported using tractor services in land preparation (Diao et al.,

⁎

Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Kansanga). These are second-level administrative units below the regions, established by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana to promote local governance. 2 Used to collectively refer to the three administrative regions (Upper West, Northern and Upper East Regions) in the northern part of Ghana. 1

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.047 Received 22 September 2017; Received in revised form 24 March 2018; Accepted 25 March 2018 0264-8377/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

2014). Ngeleza et al. (2011) also find that, 77% of maize farmers in northern Ghana reported the use of tractor services for ploughing. Similarly, a survey by the International Food Policy Research Institute in four districts of the three northern regions indicates that about 95% of maize farmers interviewed hired tractor services for land preparation (Akramov and Malek, 2012). This increasing adoption of tractor technology in northern Ghana is rooted mainly in a number of salient ecological and edaphic conditions. Compared to southern Ghana where the relatively high predominance of tree cover and softer forest ochrosol soils does not support tractor use among smallholder farmers, the relatively drier soils of the savannah ecological zone in northern Ghana necessitates the use of tractors for easier land preparation (see Kansanga, 2017). Also, unlike southern Ghana with a double maxima rainfall regime which support crop cultivation throughout the year, the increasingly erratic single maxima rainfall regime in northern Ghana further necessitate the use of improved land preparation technologies to ensure expeditious land preparation in order to prevent crop failure. According to Owusu et al. (2013), this ecological make up of the northern savannah coupled with increased soil degradation have significantly influenced agriculture towards extensification as smallholder farmers have to cultivate more land to be able to make meaningful gains. With the increasing use of tractors in northern Ghana, land use intensity has concurrently been evolving. Available data shows an overall expansion in the total cultivated area from 2.9 million hectares in 1990 to 6.7 million in 2011 (World Bank, 2015). In a recent study on land use change in the Upper East Region,3 Kleemann et al. (2017) report a 16.55% increase in overall cultivable area between 2001 and 2013 and observes further that agricultural expansion had reached its limits – a situation which clearly suggests intensifying pressure on cultivable land. This draws attention to the flip-side of agricultural modernization. In fact, despite the positive impacts of these mechanized technology provision initiatives in predominantly rainfall-dependent agriculture settings in SSA, their uptake has raised social and environmental sustainability concerns including intra-family conflicts over shared cultivable lands (Clay, 2017; Kahan et al., 2017; Sims and Kienzle, 2017). Concerns over agricultural land access are particularly crucial since land is a necessary but fixed factor of production. Given that land in northern Ghana is a shared resource at the family level governed by customary institutions, agricultural expansion by smallholder farmers has the potential to deepen competition over cultivable land and engender land-related conflicts in the face of other competing land uses. Nonetheless, neoclassical economists argue that the tension between land rights and mechanization is one that is straightforward and resolvable through the automatic allocative ability of the market economy (Barbier, 2013; Vermeulen and Cotula, 2010). To this school of thought, increased mechanization will play out in favour of relatively efficient farmers over the less productive. Further, privatization and commodification of land rights would push farmers to diversify into other alternative ventures (McCaulcy, 2003). Despite its global appeal, this thesis is however not universally applicable. In northern Ghana in particular, agricultural land access dynamics are not straightforward processes subject to the dictates of the free market economy but entail longstanding customary practices that have structured and continue to structure land use among diverse actors (Akaateba et al., 2018; Asiama et al., 2017; Kuusaana and Eledi, 2015a,b; Yaro, 2010). In spite of these unique land tenure dynamics, agricultural modernization studies in Ghana have largely concentrated on the demand and supply aspects of modern technology adoption (see Banful, 2009; Benin, 2015; Diao et al., 2014). There is very little research on the distributional impacts of agricultural expansion on land tenure

practices especially in northern Ghana, where agricultural land is a common-pool resource governed by customary provisions and held by the chief (in some cases the Earth Priest4) in trust for extended families with individuals having user rights (Abubakari et al., 2016; Kasanga and Kotey, 2001; Yaro, 2010). Meanwhile, existing studies have shown that the land fallow system that characterize farming in northern Ghana is rarely practiced in recent times as almost all agricultural land is under permanent use (Kleemann et al., 2017; Kuuire et al., 2016; Kuusaana and Eledi, 2015a,b; Owusu et al., 2013; Yiran et al., 2012). Traditional land governance systems have as a result come under intense pressure lately as smallholder agriculture is increasingly being modernized (Kleemann et al., 2017; Nyantakyi-Frimpong and Bezner Kerr, 2017). Of course the land tenure arrangements, mechanisms of accessing agricultural land and emphasis on modernization agriculture in northern Ghana as described above do not vary significantly compared with other parts of Ghana. For example, throughout Ghana, approximately 80% of land is held under customary tenure with the remaining land areas owned privately or by the government (Berry, 2017; Ghebru and Lambrecht, 2017). Noteworthy here however is that, coupled with declining soil fertility, ecological conditions in northern Ghana restrict farming to a shorter period of 5 months per year during which farmers strive to bring more land under cultivation using mechanized technologies (Kansanga, 2016). Amid other competing land uses in this context, the increased mechanization of farming and the associated extensification creates (or is creating) new resource access manoeuvres and struggles that affect security of tenure for weaker social groups, especially within families. This is significantly and spatially different from other parts of Ghana where ecological conditions support yearround crop production (sometimes 2–3 times per year). Given the increasing pressure on agricultural land, this paper examines the challenges confronting the customary land governance system of northern Ghana amid the increasing modernization of smallholder agriculture. Specifically, we focus on understanding the complexities that underscore the struggle for shared agricultural land at the family level. The paper also highlights how smallholder farmers are positioning themselves within existing traditional land governance structures and re-inventing custom to secure access to shared agricultural land at the family level, and thereby dispossessing weaker individuals of their land – either partially or fully. Using Navrongo as a case study, we argue that, agricultural commercialization has opened the customary land governance system in the northern savannah to multiple interpretations and competing claims at the family level among smallholder farmers, who by customary provisions have equal user rights to family land.

2. The political ecology of land access and control As stressed by Chikozho and Mapedza (2017), given the increasing rate of agricultural modernization in Africa, there is the crucial need for rigorous analysis into how institutional governance mechanisms of common pool resources may be evolving with such policy changes. These governance mechanisms entail formal and informal rules expressed in customary practices, ownership domains, policy frameworks, and relations of power and authority in a given context, that structure access to and control of common pool resources (Agrawal and Ostrom, 2001; Baggio et al., 2016; Bunge-Vivier and Martínez-Ballesté, 2017). This study draws on the actor-oriented approach in political ecology (Bryant and Bailey, 1997) to investigate the implications of agricultural modernization for existing customary land tenure systems in northern Ghana, and how smallholder farmers as social actors are adapting to 4 Spiritual custodian of the land who performs traditional rites to confer user rights or ownership over customary land, consults the ancestors to interpret customary land tenure codes, and prescribes sanctions in the event of violation of tenure regulations.

3

This is one of the ten administrative regions in Ghana and the region where the study was conducted.

216

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

such structural changes. Generally, political ecology, a field concerned with the study of environmentally induced conflicts (Escobar, 2006; Martinez-Alier, 2002), embraces the continually shifting dialectic between society and land-based resources, and within classes and groups in society (Blaikie and Brookfield, 2015). Although political ecology shares a broader political economy perspective, different approaches are used in examining ecological conflicts. The actor-oriented approach lays emphasis on the need to understand the interest, characteristics and actions of different actors in the struggle to control natural resources amid social structures that may be both enabling and constraining (Bryant and Bailey, 1997). By focusing on how actors negotiate access to agricultural land in an evolving traditional farming system, we aim to highlight the central role of human agency and politics in human-environment interaction and the recognition that both weaker and stronger actors possess some degree of power to advance control or resist dispossession (Leach et al., 1997a,b). Unequal power relations are central to natural resource-based struggles in the developing world (Bryant, 1998; Escobar, 2006). In this analysis, we recognise that examining the interests, characteristics and actions of different actors, and the power dynamics that underlie the social structures that govern resource use are crucial in understanding the struggle for access and control over shared agricultural lands. Power dynamics determine the nature of common-pool resource management and the decisions that affect access (Agrawal and Chhatre, 2006; Boateng, 2017; Chikozho and Mapedza, 2017). Power dynamics further shape the degree to which actors (in this case smallholder farmers) are able to negotiate and manoeuvre social codes that structure utilization of common property resources such as agricultural land in a fast evolving traditional farming system (Goldstein and Udry, 2008; Kansanga et al., 2017; Kasanga, 2002; Larson et al., 2008). Thus, how entitlements over common resources such as agricultural land in northern Ghana are defined and negotiated over space and time becomes a salient component of the struggle for control over agricultural commons. Apart from macro level large-scale land deals usually involving multinational corporations, local level tenure dynamics also involve complex process in which both weaker and relatively powerful actors frame and justify claims over family land. Contextualizing the agricultural land access struggles between smallholder farmers in northern Ghana, entitlements to the commons tend to be open to strategic negotiation and manoeuvring among farmers who may employ various strategies to justify and legitimize claims over family lands or to resist dispossession by other relatively powerful famers. Negotiability means social structures and processes are open-ended and as a result traversable to a degree that social actors can actively employ strategies to frame and justify claims over resources, and situate themselves strategically in order to benefit more from shared environmental resources (Berry, 2000; Ribot and Peluso, 2003; Roe, 1991). Berry (2000) uses the concept of negotiability to emphasize the point that access and control over shared resources can be negotiated amid the structures that govern their access. Though social structures wield a constraining potential, actors are in turn able to employ manoeuvring strategies to directly control the access of other actors or regulate their ability to access resources (Boamah and Overå, 2016; Leach et al., 1997b; Ribot and Peluso, 2003). Negotiability in environmental resource utilization is particularly central to this study given that agricultural land in northern Ghana is administered customarily, with entitlements defined strictly on identity by birth to a landowning family. Even with males from the same family who according to customary tenure provisions have equal user right to family land, power dynamics and negotiation come into play in actualizing claims over shared family lands. More importantly, for female and migrant farmers who have no customary right to land, their access largely depends on the ability to negotiate and employ strategies of control that are not questionable to customary land tenure provisions. By exploring how farmers interpret customary tenure codes and justify claims over shared agricultural lands amid heightening

competition, we aim to build on previous studies such as NyantakyiFrimpong and Bezner Kerr (2017) and Yaro (2010) that analysed the impact of macro level factors on the traditional land tenure system of northern Ghana. We contribute to the literature by examining how smallholder agricultural commercialization and extensification processes at the local level may be producing new land tenure complexities or contributing to existing ones. We pay critical attention to contemporary agricultural land tenure dynamics at the family level to understand how farmers as actors interpret and negotiate customary codes to engender access to farmland in a rapidly evolving farming system. 3. Agricultural land tenure practices in northern Ghana Agricultural land governance in northern Ghana revolves around three main traditional institutions – the family, the Chief and the Earth Priest (Kasanga, 2002). The roles of these entities with respect to land are entrenched in and legitimated by cultural norms believed to be sacred. Although these norms may vary in applicability across different communities in northern Ghana, there are unique defining principles that are peculiar to most areas. For instance, the chief and Earth priest hold land in trust for the people (Abubakari et al., 2016; Kuusaana and Eledi, 2015a,b; Yaro, 2010). Also, agricultural land in northern Ghana is owned collectively by families and land use rights are exclusively patrilineal with inheritance to land being the reserve of only male descendants (Kasanga, 2002; Yaro, 2010). Under the prevailing patrilineal customary law of northern Ghana, the individual family member’s interest over family land, especially for agriculture, follows the principle of first occupancy and user-for-life (Kasanga and Kotey, 2001). Females generally have no right of ownership to family land but may obtain user rights through their husbands and sons. This is in contrast to the matrilineal land tenure practice in most parts of Southern Ghana where women have ownership right to customary land. Conventionally, agricultural land at the local community level in northern Ghana is not sold (Yaro, 2010). Vacant family lands can be released freely to strangers for temporary use (Kasanga and Kotey, 2001). Some amount of non-compulsive appreciation in the form of portions of agricultural produce or helping in farm work is usually extended to the land-owning family. Another unique land tenure practice in northern Ghana is the traditional structure of customary land administration. Agricultural and intra-community lands are both vested in the chief who holds them in trust for the people. The Earth Priest who is usually a descendant of the early settlers of the village functions as the spiritual custodian of customary land (Kasanga and Kotey, 2001). The Earth Priest performs traditional rites to confer entitlement on individuals or families, consults the ancestors to interpret traditional norms and prescribes sanctions for violations in the event of land disputes (Yaro, 2010). Encroachment on another person’s land is believed to attract severe sanctions from the gods and ancestors. Aside these general practices that underscore traditional land governance in northern Ghana, the execution of these practices in the case study community have some unique aspects that are worth highlighting. To gain temporary access to land for farming from a landowning family as a non-native, a traditional rite called ‘koone’ led by the Earth Priest is performed. This involves the pouring of libation, sacrificing of animals and ‘breaking’ of kola nut among elders present to seek the consent of the gods and ancestors. This rite signifies the traditional conferment of user rights for a stated period. Natives who need agricultural land from other natives from different families only need to obtain the consent of the family head in the land-owning family. While this traditional customary land tenure system in northern Ghana by intent is to ensure that each male member of the community is guaranteed the right to access land for farming, housing and the enjoyment of other tenure benefits (Kasanga, 2002), at the practical level, the translation of these seemingly innate rights to family land into actual access and control does not occur automatically as dictated by 217

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

Fig. 1. Map of Ghana showing Navrongo and northern Ghana. Source: Environment, Health and Hazards Lab, Western University, 2018.

individual males at the family level is gradually resulting in land fragmentation, commodification, and conflicts between chiefs, clans and kinsmen. At the family level where all males from the same bloodline have equal birth right to land per customary provisions, an atmosphere of competing claims may result in which powerful family members could encroach upon portions of family lands used by other family members without any spiritual sanctions from the gods and ancestors. This ambiguity has the potential of opening the land tenure system to crafty interpretations and aggressive takeovers of farmlands underscored by conflicts. Intensifying conflicts over agricultural land in northern Ghana in recent times are also partly shaped by the heightened scramble for local community lands by multinational corporations (Boamah, 2014; Boamah and Overå, 2016; German et al., 2013; Nyantakyi-Frimpong and Bezner Kerr, 2017). Large-scale land acquisition by private companies over the last two decades has further influenced the traditional land tenure system to the extent that land grabbing conflicts between local communities and private corporations dominate the land use discourse and literature in recent times (Aha and Ayitey, 2017; Amanor,

customary provisions. Instead, as Yaro (2010) highlighted, the process is often preoccupied with differential access possibilities between male family members. With respect to agricultural land in particular, several socioeconomic and political factors shape the land tenure system in recent times. The evolution of the family system and its impact on how farming is done in northern Ghana in recent times is worth highlighting. In the past, crop production was done at the extended family level on collective family farms (Kansanga et al., 2017). All male members of each extended family collectively owned and cultivated on their family plots (Besley, 1995). Farm produce was centrally controlled and used for the general subsistence needs of the family, and surplus sold to take care of other collective family needs. In recent times however, collective farming at the extended family level has given way to individualized farming in nuclear families. This has significant implications on land use intensity, land fragmentation and the agricultural land tenure system in general. Yaro (2010) and Kleemann et al. (2017) have observed that the seemingly harmonious traditional land tenure system is pressured in recent times as increasing demand for agricultural land by 218

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

all key themes (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). All interviews were translated into English, transcribed, and examined for accuracy. Emerging themes were then analyzed using line-by-line coding in NVivo qualitative data analysis software.

2012; Boamah and Overå, 2016; German et al., 2013; NyantakyiFrimpong and Bezner Kerr, 2017). While such large-scale land transactions are crucial processes that undoubtedly require attention, this is mostly explored without attention to intra-community/household land use dynamics. While the former provides relevant empirical insights into macro-scale land deals, local level analysis is complementary, and reinforces the need for a comprehensive understanding of contemporary land use conflicts in local agrarian communities. In a recent study on the dynamics of youth access to agricultural land in southern Ghana, Kidido et al. (2017) called for more research into local level agricultural land access dynamics under the prevailing customary tenure system across Ghana towards formulating an evidence-based agricultural land access policy for the country. By focusing on microlevel or intra-community/household land deals among smallholder farmers we aim to examine an increasingly neglected facet in contemporary agrarian land deals discourse in Ghana: the contribution of micro-level land use dynamics to the ongoing complexities in agricultural land conflicts.

5. Analysis of findings 5.1. Agricultural modernization and emerging contestations over agricultural commons Our findings show that increasing modernization of smallholder agriculture and the associated agricultural extensification has increased pressure on cultivable land and fashioned an atmosphere of competing claims over shared agricultural lands at the family level. While overall farm areas have increased in recent times (Abdulai et al., 2013; Kleemann et al., 2017; Taiwo and Kumi, 2015; World Bank, 2015), competition for family commons for expansionist farming has intensified. Indeed, this increasing competition over customary land for agricultural is not limited to northern Ghana but has equally been reported in Southern Ghana where similar manoeuvering strategies are used by traditional authorities and powerful individuals to dispossesses weaker ones (Biitir et al., 2017; Kidido et al., 2017). In northern Ghana, the intensifying competition has opened up the traditional land tenure system to varied interpretations and manoeuvring among smallholder farmers. We found that the customary definition of entitlements based on birth to a landowning family is at the center of these contested interpretations at the family level. Amid the competition for farmland, traditionally recognized notions of sanctions for encroachment from the gods and ancestors are interpreted by family members to be inapplicable in cases of encroachment by a farmer from the same bloodline. The narrative of a 36-year-old male smallholder farmer highlights this controversy: About 8 years ago, my portion of family land handed over to me by my late father was big enough for me to practice shifting cultivation. However, upon the permanent relocation of a family member who had settled in Southern Ghana for farming, I lost more than half of my entitled portion of family land to him because I could not cultivate on the whole land at the time. I could not even establish a case against him neither did he suffer any spiritual repercussions from the gods and ancestors. […] Now that there are tractors everywhere and I have the capacity to cultivate more rice, it is hard to get an additional part of our family land to expand my farm. [Male Farmer Aged 36]. In the midst of these intra-familial agricultural land conflicts, it is very common to find farmers raising contestations over fertile portions of family lands that were cultivated jointly under the collective farming system of the extended family. The claim often made by disputing farmers is that they have the same customary user rights to extended family lands but have merely been disadvantaged by virtue of being born into a nuclear family whose head did not control more land. In the face of competition over agricultural land, we find that, these agitations stem largely from the inability of the customary tenure system to ensure the effective allocation and administration of shared extended family agricultural lands among the many nuclear families that have evolved in contemporary times. As communal farming practiced under the extended family system has largely faded away, individualism under the nuclear family system tend to promote conflict over poorly documented family lands in recent times where agricultural modernization has augmented farmers’ capacity to expand farms. Consequently, these contestations have rendered traditional land use provisions traversable at the family level. The sacred norms and the perceived spontaneous ways of addressing disputes through sanctions from the gods are interpreted in recent times to be inapplicable and ineffective deterrent for intra-family land encroachments. Another farmer who lost part of his land to an extended family member highlighted the inefficiency of traditional dispute resolution mechanisms at the family level:

4. Methodology As observed by Jacobs (2017), complexities inherent in the struggle over land-based resources cannot be resolved entirely on theoretical grounds since class struggle is not just an element in theory, but also a subject of empirical enquiry. This paper is based on in-depth qualitative research conducted from June to September 2015 in Navrongo in northern Ghana. The three administrative regions in northern Ghana are located in the Sudan and Guinea savannah agro-ecological zones of Ghana (see Fig. 1). These zones have similar agro-ecological and sociocultural characteristics, which translate into common farming systems and land tenure practices (Kansanga et al., 2017). Navrongo is the capital of the Kassena-Nankani district of the Upper East Region. As a focal food crop producing and marketing community in northern Ghana, Navrongo has gained research attention in agriculture innovation for the past two decades (Kansanga et al., 2017). Given the generally complex nature of land-related issues, we spent ample time in the case study community seeking to understand the land governance mechanisms. Thus, our research questions focused on understanding in detail the operation of the traditional land tenure systems in administering agricultural commons amid the increased competition for cultivable land, and ultimately, how farmers relate among themselves to negotiate access to land at the family level. We conducted in-depth interviews with randomly selected smallholder farmers (n = 60 comprising 30 females and 30 males), participant observations, and informal conversations with community leaders (the chief and Earth Priest) to gain deeper understanding of the incipient complexities in agricultural land access and governance in the study area. In-depth interviews enabled us to explore the experiences of smallholder farmers regarding access and control over family land. We ensured that both males and female smallholder farmers were equally represented in our sample in order to uncover the subjective experiences of men and women with regards to agricultural land access at the family level. Informal conversations with the chief and earth priest facilitated an understanding of the land governance dynamics in the study area while participant observation was used to obtain first-hand information on the strategies smallholder farmers were deploying to protect their farmlands from being ‘grabbed’ by other family members. This study is part of a larger mixed methodological study, which also drew on spatial data using geographic information systems to analyse changes in farm areas of smallholder farmers following increasing mechanization (see Kansanga, 2016). Participants were interviewed after farm work and interviews lasted about an hour on average. In view of the prevailing low literacy among smallholder farmers, all interviews were conducted face-face in Kasem, the local language of the study area. This approach enabled us to clarify vague responses, probe deeper to unearth hidden meanings and explore 219

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

Aged 68] For other women who lacked such manoeuvering opportunity to control land directly at the family level, their access was mostly dependent on their husbands who in the best scenario grant them user rights to marginal lands. In the intensifying land struggle at the family level however, most women lamented on the practice whereby some men (often weaker/poorer family members) who are pushed off fertile lands are even returning to these very marginal lands, which is further constraining their land access possibilities. According to a female farmer: These days, getting access to even already cultivated lands of our husbands and other family members is becoming a challenge. Because people are expanding their farms and there is competition over cultivable portions of the family land, most men are practicing continuous cultivation. [Female, Farmer, Aged 36]. Even with marginal lands, most women reported to rely on social networks at the community level to gain access despite the observation that such land deals often lack security of tenure. Another female farmer observed: In recent times, I rely on friends outside the family to get land for farming because my husband doesn’t have enough share of the family land to spare. …as a woman, one has to just get used to moving between different lands as when one is permitted to use them. [Female, Farmer, Aged 48].

The traditional dispute resolution system is not able to effectively resolve agricultural land conflicts within families. In my case, another brother snatched the portion of our family rice field my father left for me some years ago because I could not cultivate the entire land every year. Now that farming is relatively easier, I cannot expand as he is not in the position to release even part of the land to me. …His claim is that the land belongs to all of us and he has equal user rights to it per custom. [Male Farmer, Aged 48]. Highlighting the increasing frequency of conflicts over family land in recent times, another smallholder farmer described the difficulty existing traditional institutions and custodians are confronted with in resolving these conflicts: There are several similar accounts of agitations over shared family lands these days among farmers in this community. Yet the common language of mediation from the elders has always been a call for peace and understanding between disputing parties especially when both are from the same family. [Male Farmer, Aged, 53]. While intra-family land grabbing is imminent in northern Ghana, most of these episodes are however silenced by community elders who tend to use metaphors of `oneness` and the need for unity to call for peace between dissenting parties at the family level. In most cases, a degree of partial calm is reached out of respect for traditional authorities often to the disadvantage of weaker/poorer farmers in the family. At the centre of customary land dispute resolution in the study community is the Earth priest (Known as Tigatiina/Tigatuu in local parlance) who determines cases in consultation with the gods – a process most study participants deemed sacrosanct. The Tigatiina of Navrongo in a detailed account describes the sanctity of traditional agricultural land codes and rituals for resolving land tenure disputes while highlighting the current underlying challenge confronting the system with regards to mediating disputes over family lands between farmers from the same bloodline: Unlike intra-community lands which are increasingly being commercialized and formalized under government control [referring to the Ghana Lands Commission], agricultural land is still administered based on traditional norms. The process of dispute resolution, which is directed by the gods and ancestors, is highly respected by all community members. These days however, because farmers are expanding production, there are many land access conflicts. These conflicts are often the most difficult to settle since both parties belong to the same bloodline and by tradition have the equal user rights to the land their ancestors collectively cultivated some years ago. [Earth Priest, Navrongo, Aged 69]. Highlighting the central role of the evolution of the farming system in the current contestations over shared family lands, the Tigatiina further observed: As lineages continue to multiply and many farmers have left collective cultivation under the extended family and taken to individual farming agricultural land fragmentation becomes intense. This makes disputes between family members inevitable. [Earth Priest, Navrongo, Aged 69]. Whilst customary provisions strictly ascribe land use rights to only male family members, the crafty interpretation of the land tenure code by smallholder farmers in recent times was not limited to males. Female farmers also adopt certain strategies to manoeuvre and negotiate access to shared agricultural land in ways that are not customarily questionable. In the case of elderly women within land-owing families, the strategy of using the identity of their sons to claim permanent user rights to family land was common in the study area. For instance, a widow negotiated long-term access to the land once cultivated by her late husband using the identity of her son, although he was a student and not in active farming. Contextualizing her experience, she noted: Women have different levels of luck when it comes to obtaining land for farming. After the death of my husband, I continued to farm on this land to take care of my children. Because we have a male child, I am holding this land in his name although he is in school. [Female, Farmer

5.2. Manoeuvring in practice: understanding contemporary tenure protection strategies As agricultural production continues to expand with intensifying competition over family commons within households, our findings show that smallholder farmers are actively adopting personal initiatives to protect their entitled portions of family land. Land protection strategies emerging from this research include the use of spiritual deities, continuous cultivation, and leasing of uncultivated entitled lands. It became apparent that most smallholder farmers have lost confidence in the traditional tenure protection system especially at the family level and have resorted to the contraction of relatively powerful spiritual deities to protect their lands from being grabbed. These deities are mostly smaller gods, most notably the rain god. The spirits of these deities are invoked over the land through various rituals. On most farms where this was practiced, a symbol of the deity is usually fixed at a vantage point visible enough to forewarn others of danger. A participant who had one of these spiritual symbols on his farm observed: In times like this [referring to the increasing competition for family land], most of us have to resort to alternative approaches for protecting our tenure. … Apart from continuously engaging my portion farmland every year, I have also invoked the spirit of the rain god over my farmland. … Everyone in this community knows the consequence of trespassing the authority of the rain god is being struck to death by lightning and thunder. [Male, Farmer, Aged 45]. Expressing the urgency and need to fortify land against dispossession, another farmer who reported to have lost a portion of his family’s rice valley he cultivated lamented: In critical situations like this, one has to stand and defend your land with all you have at your disposal’. In justification for the need to protect one’s portion of farmland at all cost, he added rhetorically, ‘even God and the gods help those who help themselves’ [Male, Farmer, Aged 37]. While this strategy was common among farmers who were affiliated to the Traditional African Religion, Christians and Muslims also sometimes displayed symbols of their faith to communicate the protection of their land and crops by God and Allah, respectively. Although the use of such deities on farms is not a new practice in the agricultural trajectory of northern Ghana, agricultural extensification and the accompanying pressure on family land has extended their use in recent times to individual tenure protection. 220

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

male descendants. While in the patrilineal land owning system of northern Ghana, traditional land governance provisions guarantee all males the right to family land (see Kasanga, 2002; Yaro, 2010), in practice, some lack actual control and access or have this right dispossessed by other family members. The underlying explanation to this form of dispossession is the crafty interpretations of the same customary code by other relatively wealthier and powerful family members who have more capacity to cultivate vast farmlands with the use of mechanized technologies. This relates to the vulnerability discourse in political ecology, which emphasize that less powerful actors would have their rights to ecological resources taken over in class struggles over resource accumulation (Blaikie and Brookfield, 2015). Our findings are unique such that while land grabbing and its resultant disputes have for a long time been highlighted at the global level to be synonymous to large scale land deals involving transnational corporations, this paper highlights a subtle and seemingly overlooked dimension to land grabbing occurring among smallholder farmers at the community level. We argue that the current intensified struggle over agricultural commons in northern Ghana is a gradual manifestation of the three decade old observation by Shepherd (1981) in which he emphasized that smallholder farmers in the perceived land-surplus rural areas where capitalist farming now dominates will lose land and opportunities to relatively wealthier farmers, which will eventually pressurize remaining rural lands. Despite the longstanding trust in customary land tenure provisions as capable of effectively governing community land use and safeguarding land rights of smallholder farmers, the pressure from expansionist agriculture has challenged this age-old expectation. Agricultural land access provisions are increasingly becoming fluid with stronger counter-claims and interpretations surfacing to justify the notion that family lands that were previously owned and cultivated collectively are now ‘no man’s lands’ at the family level to which all male members from the family bloodline have the right to use. Regarding this fluidity and ambiguity in the interpretation of customary tenure at the family level, which we describe as an ‘open customary space’ in traditional land governance, we argue that in the face of a rapidly modernizing agricultural system, traditional tenure protection codes have become ineffective and subject to multiple interpretations at the family level. Indeed, it is clear from our findings that, the traditional land tenure system did not take into consideration conflicts that could arise between individuals from the same family/bloodline in the use of shared agricultural commons. Recognizing this weakness, Kleemann et al. (2017) have equally argued that this inheritance system bears a high potential of aiding dispossession since tenure is based on oral agreements rather than official documents on land entitlement. The assumption that family bonds will always engender cooperation and prevent conflicts in the use of the shared family lands is not working out as expected in this era of intensifying competition over family lands. Accordingly, Fennell (2011) reminds us that while it is easy to understand how the proximity of interested parties could work to leverage compliance in common resource utilization, under different conditions, the same proximity might stimulate provocation and conflict. Such conflicts over shared family lands in the northern Ghana context have gradually left a ‘neutral space’ for diverse interpretations of customary tenure provisions at the family level through which powerful farmers are able to strategically dispossess other less powerful family members in what can best be described as intimate dispossession. This intensifying struggle over cultivable lands and the resultant intra-familial land grabbing are worsened by the increased evolution of the farming system towards individualized farming as opposed to previous joint family farming under the extended family system. Consistent with Yaro’s (2010) suggestion, agricultural land fragmentation is intensifying at the same pace as lineages are multiplying with male descendants requiring family land to produce individually and feed their own nuclear families (Yaro, 2010). Moreover, as smallholder agriculture becomes progressively individualized and relations of

Despite family land being a communal property in the study area to which individual family members have equal user rights based on the principle of first-occupation, to have continued right to family land depends largely on active occupancy. Because the notion of equal user rights presupposes that another family member could use unoccupied family land without any spiritual sanctions, it has become an avenue for manoeuvring and dispossession at the extended family level. Our findings show that most smallholder farmers have recently adopted a protective strategy of continuous cultivation of their allocated portions of family land. A farmer who lost part of his portion of family land describes how he constantly engages his remaining land in recent times: In these times that everyone is increasing their farms, for so many years now I try to engage all my land every farming season for so many years now to avoid any confrontation. I just try to prevent other family members who need more land from eyeing it …From my experience, a land I left to fallow for some years was demanded and used by another family member because it was not in active use. [Male Farmer, Aged 51 years] The notion has been that if a farmer is continuously cultivating the entire portion of family land allocated him, another family member cannot make claim over it. From field observations, most farmers were conscious of protecting the boundaries of their allocated parcels of agricultural land, with some even cultivating vegetables (pepper and okro) along such boundaries. In some cases, husbands also gave permission to their wives to grow vegetables to keep lands in active use every season. We found that some farmers in the study area who were unable to continually cultivate their portions of family land adopted other means of maintaining control. Most of these farmers adopted the protectionist strategy of leasing the uncultivated portions of their lands out to other farmers outside their family bloodline, mostly migrants, for temporal use. A farmer describes how he combines some of these strategies: Apart from having a sign of the cross on my farm, I have also given out portions of my land that I am not able to engage to trustworthy migrant friends to make sure that it is not categorised as unengaged family land by any of my family members [Male Farmer, Aged 52]. Because farmers outside the family bloodline especially migrants have no customarily recognized rights to land, giving out land to them for temporary use was a common tenure protection strategy that reduced the risk of dispossession by other family members. 6. Discussion This research examined the implications of agricultural modernization on traditional land tenure systems in northern Ghana where agricultural land is largely a shared resource. The analysis aimed to understand evolving micro-level land use dynamics among smallholder farmers. We argue that, following agricultural modernization and consequent expansion in smallholder farming since the last decade, agricultural land access and control is reflective of a myriad of manoeuvrings and strategizing amid increasing intra-family land tenure disputes. While smallholder farmers are expanding farmlands with the aid of tractors and weedicides in recent times (Abdulai et al., 2013; Faltermeier and Abdulai, 2009; Taiwo and Kumi, 2015), the resultant intra-familial competition over fertile portions of shared family lands yield multiple interpretations of traditional tenure codes, dispossession of weaker/poorer farmers and the consequent adoption of various individualized tenure protection strategies. Akin to the assertion of Leach et al. (1997a) that the translation of entitlements over community-based natural resources to actual access and control is not an automatic process but an outcome of negotiation or contestation among actors, the current agricultural land access trajectory in northern Ghana is subject to competing interest and intense agitations at the family level. Kleemann et al. (2017) have observed that, the process is worsened by culturally sanctioned customary land inheritance arrangements in which family lands are passed down to 221

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

in the agricultural transformation debate. Without attention to the associated complex land access dynamics, which leave relatively weaker farmers at risk of intimate dispossession, such agricultural modernization initiatives may eventually rework customary tenure arrangements over shared agricultural lands in favour of more powerful actors. This has implications on food security especially for vulnerable smallholder farmers. In this regard, current ambiguities in customary land governance need to be managed in new formalised rules that build on traditional land tenure practices to guarantee adequate access to agricultural land for smallholder farmers. To introduce an element of fairness and forestall the perpetuation of crafty interpretations of customary tenure codes by powerful farmers, it may be necessary to further decentralize formal land governance strategies such as land documentation and registration to rural agricultural lands. While the existing formal land registration system is not without challenges, its deployment as a complementary mode of land governance could minimize ambiguities in family land ownership in the face of increasing individualized farming and the associated persistent fragmentation of family commons. Indeed, this will help traditional authorities administer customary lands (most of which are currently undocumented) more effectively. Moreover, in view of the gender inequalities in access to customary land in northern Ghana, the land banks programme being implemented in urban areas in the country needs to prioritize on including agricultural lands. This will provide an avenue through which women (who are key contributors to smallholder agriculture but lack customarily recognized rights to land) can have secure access to farmland. Given that smallholder agriculture in SSA is mostly carried out on customary land holdings, we emphasize the implementation of these recommendations in similar context. This is particularly crucial as policy makers in the sub-region are currently struggling with finding sustainable approaches to safeguarding farmers’ land rights amid the increasing scramble for agricultural land by transnational corporations.

production increasingly commodified, the sanctity of the moral economy of the family and the traditional principles on which its sustenance is situated are undermined, resulting in deepening social differentiation in land access. This is consistent with the findings Amanor (2010) in South Eastern Ghana where similar land access contestations have emerged following changing family values over land governance, and commodification of agriculture within the spate of large scale and individualised agriculture. We argue that, while the principles of ‘first-occupation’ and ‘user for life’ laid the foundation of agricultural land use in northern Ghana, the system worked well at a time there was relatively less pressure on agricultural land under the extended family-based collective farming system compared to recent times where individualism and competitive expansionist farming predominates the smallholder farming sector. This reinforces an earlier argument by Yaro (2010) that the customary system is under siege and crumbling at a faster pace at the rural level. We stress this observation pointing to the fact that in recent times, the widely claimed egalitarian land tenure system of northern Ghana (see Kasanga, 2002; Kasanga and Kotey, 2001) is giving way to a system of survival of the fitters, underscored by deepening contours of inequality in the access and control of shared agricultural lands at the family level. The danger however is that, the current fluidity in traditional land governance and accompanying ambiguity in interpretation of user rights to family commons has the tendency to redefine land ownership at the expense of weaker farmers. Consequently, land may end up in the hands of relatively powerful family members and continually passed down to their generations who would actively occupy it all year round. Unfortunately, the disbandment of established traditional sanctions for encroachment as ineffective in mediating family-level land disputes have negative implications for the sustainability of smallholder agriculture. Although Ghebru et al. (2016) intimated the effectiveness of strategies such as leasing to protect user rights, we argue that these tactics only tend to soften rather than resolve land disputes within families. More importantly, these tenure protection strategies by farmers also have crucial ecological implications. While relatively weaker farmers tend to resort to continuous occupation of their allocated portions of family land as a strategy to avoid dispossession, the implications on soil fertility, yields and ultimately food security cannot be overlooked. Although this strategy may be a suitable measure to protect farm lands in the interim, such farmers stand the risk of poor yields in the future even if they are eventually not dispossessed of their land.

Conflicts of interest None. Acknowledgements We appreciate the financial support provided by the Nordic Africa Institute for this research. We are also grateful to the farmers and traditional leaders of Navrongo for sharing their experiences with us. We would also like to thank the journal editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. Our profound gratitude also goes to Prof. Isaac Luginaah for providing comments on initial drafts of this manuscript. We are also grateful to our peers and professors for their comments during the presentation of this paper at the 2016 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Geographers Ontario Division.

7. Conclusions and contribution to the agrarian transformation debate Land availability for agriculture remains a crucial aspect for the sustainability of smallholder farming. While the land grabbing discourse has focused largely on large scale land acquisitions involving transnational corporations, our analysis highlights a salient but silent theoretical dimension to the land struggle in recent times: intra-familial land grabbing resulting from increased pressure on shared family land as smallholder agriculture continues to evolve towards individualized mechanized farming. This paper extends the theoretical framing of “land grabbing”, which has largely assumed a political connotation of powerful foreign corporations or individuals taking over lands in developing countries. In the analysis, we have demonstrated that ‘land grabbing’ is a multi-scalar process occurring at different scales: from global (often discussed in the literature) to the local (within families and communities). Our analysis demonstrate the critical need to pay both theoretical and empirical attention to ‘intimate dispossession’ of land within families and local communities as researchers and policy makers continue to engage with finding a sustainable approach to achieving food security. Particularly, while we aggressively pursue the modernization of smallholder farming under the new green revolution in the quest to secure food for all by 2030, we should not lose sight of these incipient micro-level complexities in customary land governance

References Abdulai, S., Nkegbe, P.K., Donkoh, S.A., 2013. Technical Efficiency of Maize Production in Northern Ghana. http://dx.doi.org/10.5897/AJAR2013.7753. Abubakari, Z., van der Molen, P., Bennett, R.M., Kuusaana, E.D., 2016. Land consolidation, customary lands, and Ghana’s Northern Savannah Ecological Zone: an evaluation of the possibilities and pitfalls. Land Use Policy 54, 386–398. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.02.033. Agrawal, A., Chhatre, A., 2006. Explaining success on the commons: community forest governance in the Indian Himalaya. World Dev. 34 (1), 149–166. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.3390/su9020311. Agrawal, A., Ostrom, E., 2001. Collective action, property rights, and decentralization in resource use in India and Nepal. Polit. Soc. 29 (4), 485–514. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1177/0032329201029004002. Aha, B., Ayitey, J.Z., 2017. Biofuels and the hazards of land grabbing: tenure (in) security and indigenous farmers’ investment decisions in Ghana. Land Use Policy 60, 48–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.10.012.

222

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

investment in Ghana. J. Polit. Econ. 116 (6), 981–1022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ 595561. Hall, R., Scoones, I., Tsikata, D., 2017. Plantations, outgrowers and commercial farming in Africa: agricultural commercialisation and implications for agrarian change. J. Peasant Stud. 44 (3), 515–537. Houssou, N., Aboagye, P.O., Kolavalli, S., 2016. Meeting Ghanaian Farmers’ Demand for a Full Range of Mechanization Services. Retrieved from. International Food Policy Research Institute. http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/ 130752. Jacobs, R., 2017. An urban proletariat with peasant characteristics: land occupations and livestock raising in South Africa. J. Peasant Stud. 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 03066150.2017.1312354. Kahan, D., Bymolt, R., Zaal, F., 2017. Thinking outside the plot: insights on small-scale mechanisation from case studies in East Africa. J. Dev.t Stud. 1–16. http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/00220388.2017.1329525. Kansanga, M., Atuoye, K., Luginaah, I., 2017. Same problem, conflicting “truths”: rethinking the missing links in forest degradation narrativization in Ghana. Afri. Geogr. Rev. 1–13. Kansanga, M.M., 2016. Agricultural Mechanization and Its Impacts on Land Use and the Food Basket in the Northern Savannah of Ghana: Insights from Navrongo in the Upper Easta Region. The University of Bergen. Kansanga, M.M., 2017. Who you know and when you plough? Social capital and agricultural mechanization under the new green revolution in Ghana. Int. J. Agric. Sustain. 15 (6), 708–723. Kasanga, R.K., 2002. Land tenure, resource access and decentralisation in Ghana. In: Toulmin, S.T.C., Lavigne-Delville, P. (Eds.), The Dynamics of Resource Tenure in West Africa. James Currey, Oxford, pp. 25–36. Kasanga, R.K., Kotey, N.A., 2001. Land Management in Ghana: Building on Tradition and Modernity. Retrieved from. International Institute for Environment and Development London. http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/9002IIED.pdf?pagewanted=all& sa=U&ei=_oVZU538AqTh4wSgtIHwAQ&ved=0CEcQFjAI&usg= AFQjCNHdUIlyYPOPQpEDPOLSCQqdhr0I7Q. Kidido, J.K., Bugri, J.T., Kasanga, R.K., 2017. Dynamics of youth access to agricultural land under the customary tenure regime in the Techiman traditional area of Ghana. Land Use Policy 60, 254–266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.10.040. Kleemann, J., Baysal, G., Bulley, H.N.N., Fürst, C., 2017. Assessing driving forces of land use and land cover change by a mixed-method approach in north-eastern Ghana, West Africa. J. Environ. Manage. 196, 411–442. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. jenvman.2017.01.053. Kuuire, V.Z., Mkandawire, P., Luginaah, I., Arku, G., 2016. Abandoning land in search of farms: challenges of subsistence migrant farming in Ghana. Agric. Hum. Values 33 (2), 475–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9612-0. Kuusaana, E.D., Eledi, J.A., 2015a. As the city grows, where do the farmers go? Understanding peri-urbanization and food systems in Ghana-evidence from the Tamale metropolis. Urban Forum 26 (4), 443–465. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/ s12132-015-9260-x. Kuusaana, E.D., Eledi, J.A., 2015b. Customary land allocation, urbanization and land use planning in Ghana: implications for food systems in the Wa Municipality. Land Use Policy 48, 454–466. Larson, A.M., Cronkleton, P., Barry, D., Pacheco, P., 2008. Tenure Rights and Beyond: Community Access to Forest Resources in Latin America. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia. http://dx.doi.org/10.17528/cifor/ 002631. Leach, M., Mearns, R., Scoones, I., 1997a. Challenges to community‐based sustainable development: dynamics, entitlements, institutions. IDS Bull. 28 (4), 4–14. http://dx. doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.1997.mp28004002.x. Leach, M., Mearns, R., Scoones, I., 1997b. Environmental Entitlements: a Framework for Understanding the Institutional Dynamics of Environmental Change (No. 359). Retrieved from. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex Brighton. http://hdl.handle.net/10535/3716. Martinez-Alier, J., 2002. The Environmentalism of the Poor: a Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK/Northampton. McCaulcy, J.F., 2003. Plowing ahead: the effects of agricultural mechanization on land tenure in Burkina Faso. J. Public Int. Affairs Princeton 14, 104–124. Retrieved from. http://jpia.princeton.edu/sites/jpia/files/2003-6.pdf. Ngeleza, G.K., Owusua, R., Jimah, K., Kolavalli, S., 2011. Cropping practices and labor requirements in field operations for major crops in Ghana. In: IFPRI Discussion Paper 01074. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. Retrieved from. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6314949.pdf. Nyantakyi-Frimpong, H., Bezner Kerr, R., 2017. Land grabbing, social differentiation, intensified migration and food security in northern Ghana. J. Peasant Stud. 44 (2), 421–444. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1228629. Owusu, A.B., Cervone, G., Luzzadder-Beach, S., 2013. Analysis of desertification in the Upper East region (UER) of Ghana using remote sensing, field study, and local knowledge. Cartogr.: Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Geovisual. 48 (1), 22–37. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.3138/carto.48.1.1065. Ribot, J.C., Peluso, N.L., 2003. A theory of access. Rural Sociol. 68 (2), 153–181. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2003.tb00133.x. Roe, E.M., 1991. Development narratives, or making the best of blueprint development. World Dev. 19 (4), 287–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(91)90177-J. Shepherd, A., 1981. Agrarian change in northern Ghana: public investment, capitalist farming and famine. In Rural Development in Tropical Africa. Springer, pp. 168–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05318-6_7. Sims, B., Kienzle, J., 2017. Sustainable agricultural mechanization for smallholders: what Is it and how can we implement it? Agriculture 7 (6), 50. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ agriculture7060050.

Akaateba, M.A., Huang, H., Adumpo, E.A., 2018. Between co-production and institutional hybridity in land delivery: insights from local planning practice in peri-urban Tamale, Ghana. Land Use Policy 72, 215–226. Akramov, K., Malek, M., 2012. Analyzing Profitability of Maize, Rice, and Soybean Production in Ghana: Results of PAM and DEA Analysis (Ghana Strategy Support Program No. 28). Retrieved from. Ghana Strategy Support Program (GSSP) Working, Accra/Washington, DC. http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnaec727.pdf. Amanor, K.S., 2010. Family values, land sales and agricultural commodification in SouthEastern Ghana. Africa 80 (11), 104–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/ E0001972009001284. Amanor, K.S., 2012. Global resource grabs, agribusiness concentration and the smallholder: two West African case studies. J. Peasant Stud. 39 (3–4), 731–749. http://dx. doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2012.676543. Asiama, K.O., Bennett, R.M., Zevenbergen, J.A., 2017. Land consolidation on Ghana’s rural customary lands: drawing from the Dutch, Lithuanian and Rwandan experiences. J. Rural Stud. 56, 87–99. Baggio, J., Barnett, A., Perez-Ibarra, I., Brady, U., Ratajczyk, E., Rollins, N., et al., 2016. Explaining success and failure in the commons: the configural nature of Ostrom’s institutional design principles. Int. J. Commons 10 (2). http://dx.doi.org/10.18352/ ijc.634. Banful, A.B., 2009. Operational Details of the 2008 Fertilizer Subsidy in Ghana—preliminary Report. Retrieved from. Ghana Strategy Support Program (GSSP)-International Food Policy Research Institute, pp. 11–12. https://pdfs. semanticscholar.org/606e/99ae375b1d9202465180ee5211b1c7ca5.pdf. Barbier, E.B., 2013. Economics, Natural-Resource Scarcity and Development (Routledge Revivals): Conventional and Alternative Views. Routledge. Benin, S., 2015. Impact of Ghana’s agricultural mechanization services center program. Agric. Econ. 46 (S1), 103–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/agec.12201. Berry, S., 2000. Chiefs Know Their Boundaries: Essays on Property, Power, and the Past in Asante. Heinemann Educational Books, pp. 1896–1996. Berry, S., 2017. Struggles over Land and authority in Africa. Afr. Stud. Rev. 60 (3), 105–125. Besley, T., 1995. Property rights and investment incentives: theory and evidence from Ghana. J. Polit. Econ. 103 (5), 903–937. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/262008. Biitir, S.B., Nara, B.B., Ameyaw, S., 2017. Integrating decentralised land administration systems with traditional land governance institutions in Ghana: policy and praxis. Land Use Policy 68, 402–414. Blaikie, P., Brookfield, H., 2015. Land Degradation and Society. Routledge, New York. Boamah, F., 2014. How and why chiefs formalise land use in recent times: the politics of land dispossession through biofuels investments in Ghana. Rev. Afri. Political Econ. 41 (141), 406–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2014.901947. Boamah, F., Overå, R., 2016. Rethinking livelihood impacts of biofuel land deals in Ghana. Dev. Change 47 (1), 98–129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dech.12213. Boateng, P.K., 2017. Land access, agricultural land use changes and narratives about Land degradation in the Savannahs of Northeast Ghana during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. Soc. Sci. 6 (1), 35. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/socsci6010035. Bryant, R.L., 1998. Power, knowledge and political ecology in the third world: a review. Prog. Phys. Geogr. 22 (1), 79–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/030913339802200104. Bryant, R.L., Bailey, S., 1997. Third world political ecology. New York. Routledge. Bunge-Vivier, V., Martínez-Ballesté, A., 2017. Factors that influence the success of conservation programs in communal property areas in Mexico. Int. J. Commons 11 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.18352/ijc.718. Chikozho, C., Mapedza, E., 2017. In search of socio-ecological resilience and adaptive capacity: articulating the governance imperatives for improved canal management on the barotse floodplain, Zambia. Int. J. Commons 11 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.18352/ ijc.636. Clay, N., 2017. Agro-environmental transitions in African Mountains: shifting socio-spatial practices amid state-led commercialization in Rwanda. Ann. Am. Assoc. Geogr. 107 (2), 360–370. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2016.1254019. Collier, P., Dercon, S., 2014. African agriculture in 50Years: smallholders in a rapidly changing world? World Dev. 63, 92–101. Diao, X., Cossar, F., Houssou, N., Kolavalli, S., 2014. Mechanization in Ghana: emerging demand, and the search for alternative supply models. Food Policy 48, 168–181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.05.013. Diao, X., Cossar, F., Houssou, N., Kolavalli, S., Jimah, K., Ohene, P., 2012. Mechanization in Ghana: searching for sustainable service supply models. Food Policy. http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.05.013. Escobar, A., 2006. Difference and conflict in the struggle over natural resources: a political ecology framework. Development 49 (3), 6–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ palgrave.development.1100267. Faltermeier, L., Abdulai, A., 2009. The impact of water conservation and intensification technologies: empirical evidence for rice farmers in Ghana. Agric. Econ. 40 (3), 365–379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2009.00383.x. FAO, 2017. Regional Overview of Food Insecurity and Nutrition. Africa. . Fennell, L.A., 2011. Ostrom’s law: property rights in the commons. Int. J. Commons 5 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.18352/ijc.252. 9–7. German, L., Schoneveld, G., Mwangi, E., 2013. Contemporary processes of large-scale land acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa: legal deficiency or elite capture of the rule of law? World Dev. 48, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.03.006. Ghebru, H., Khan, H., Lambrecht, I., 2016. Perceived Land Tenure Security and Rural Transformation: Empirical Evidence from Ghana, vol. 1545 International Food Policy Research Institute Discussion Paper. Retrieved from. https://ssrn.com/abstract= 2815183. Ghebru, H., Lambrecht, I., 2017. Drivers of perceived land tenure (in) security: empirical evidence from Ghana. Land Use Policy 66, 293–303. Goldstein, M., Udry, C., 2008. The profits of power: land rights and agricultural

223

Land Use Policy 75 (2018) 215–224

M. Kansanga et al.

Yaro, J.A., 2010. Customary tenure systems under siege: contemporary access to land in Northern Ghana. GeoJournal 75 (2), 199–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10708009-9301-x. Yaro, J.A., Teye, J.K., Torvikey, G.D., 2017. Agricultural commercialisation models, agrarian dynamics and local development in Ghana. J. Peasant Stud. 44 (3), 538–554. Yawson, D.O., Armah, F.A., Afrifa, E.K.A., Dadzie, S.K.N., 2010. Ghana’s fertilizer subsidy policy: early field lessons from farmers in the central region. J. Sustain. Dev. Afr. 12 (3), 191–203. Yiran, G.A.B., Kusimi, J.M., Kufogbe, S.K., 2012. A synthesis of remote sensing and local knowledge approaches in land degradation assessment in the Bawku East District, Ghana. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. 14 (1), 204–213. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. jag.2011.09.016.

Strauss, A., Corbin, J., 1990. Basics of Qualitative Research, vol. 15 Sage, Newbury Park, CA. Taiwo, A., Kumi, F., 2015. Status of agricultural mechanization in Ghana: a case study of maize producing farmers in Ejura/Sekyedumase District, Ashanti region. Int. Res. J. Eng. Technol. 2 (9), 36–43. Retrieved from. http://www.irjet.net/archives/V2/i9/ IRJET-V2I907.pdf. Vermeulen, S., Cotula, L., 2010. Over the heads of local people: consultation, consent, and recompense in large-scale land deals for biofuels projects in Africa. J. Peasant Stud. 37 (4), 899–916. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2010.512463. World Bank, 2015. Ghana: Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment. Retrieved from. World Bank, Washington. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/ 366021467992806296/Ghana-Agricultural-sector-risk-assessment-riskprioritization.

224