Improving women’s access to farmland in northern Ghana

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Hello, listener! Welcome to another edition of the program for farmers, Farm Right. Today, our focus will be on women and access to farmland, especially in northern Ghana.

Do you know that, despite the fact that women account for a large proportion of Ghana’s agricultural workforce, women have limited or no access to or ownership of farmland? Did you also know that, if women had access to and control over farmland, it would have a positive impact on household food supply, income, and family welfare? We will be discussing these issues with a woman who has successfully hung on to fertile land she gained through inheritance.

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Before we hear from the woman with the success story, let’s get a general overview of the challenges facing women around ownership of farmland in Ghana, and specifically the northern part of the country. I have in the studio, Hajia Lamnatu Adam. She is the Executive Director of Songtaba, a women and children’s rights advocacy organization in northern Ghana.

Hajia, can you give us a general overview of women and access to farmland, especially in the north?

Generally, most women farmers in our part of the world and especially in northern Ghana do not have the economic power to get the resources they need, including land. There are some systemic issues related to male dominance or patriarchy, and these grant men more resources, more information, and more opportunities than women. This situation denies women access to farmlands.

Men’s education levels also affect women. Often, educated men see the logic in supporting their wives to succeed, and understand how this will benefit their wife and their family. But if a man is uneducated, he may not see the need to support women to succeed and instead believe that their place is in the kitchen. This may come in part from fear that a successful woman will want more power and control more resources than her husband. This situation affects the unequal distribution of power between women and men, girls, and boys in all spheres of our life.

Generally, women farmers in northern Ghana lack information on best practices to achieve good yields. Sometimes a women’s group is lent a piece of land, but the land has been overused and is unproductive.

Some married women use a part of their husband’s land to produce vegetables and green leaves to prepare food. This is mainly for home consumption and they sell a little, but they have no power to decide how to use the land except to compliment what their husbands plant. And women who are divorced, separated, or widowed may not even have the kind of land that is enjoyed by married women.

Traditionally, family lands are leased to a male member of the family, who enjoys the right to use them. When the man dies, the land is transferred to another male in the family along with the rights to use the land. Wives are seen as helpmates of the man and, therefore, their access to family land depends on the husband.

Because of our patriarchy and traditional customs, even if a husband owns some land, the wife does not inherit the land after his death. The land either goes to the man’s brother or his other family members. So because women lack economic power, because they do not have access to land because of traditional issues, and because of high illiteracy even for those who have a little land, managing a farm and getting other resources like fertilizers and money to pay farm labourers is a problem.

Why are women not allowed to inherit lands?

If it was land that your husband’s father was farming before he passed, your husband’s brother will take it over and continue to farm.

Land is not part of the property that a woman inherits. A woman is always somebody’s daughter. That’s the agony. You will be married off to a different family—and so you don’t have access to your own parents’ farmland. Eventually they say you belong to another family. And when you are married and with your in-laws, they say you are from somewhere else. These are deeply-held cultural beliefs.

Have there been efforts by NGOs, government, and civil society organizations to help reverse this?

Not very much. We try to support the women’s groups we work with to acquire farmland as a group by signing an MOU with land owners. Land owners sometimes give land to women to farm. And the women invest in the land by, for example, using composting and other climate-smart and resilient practices. But when they invest all of those practices in the land and it becomes more productive, before you realize it, the land owner says that he needs his land next year. And that destroys the investment the women made in the land.

So we negotiate MOUs with traditional authorities for longer ownership of pockets of land. And we support women to meet the District Assembly and Department of Agric to get government support, especially related to government policies such as distribution of free or subsidized fertilizer and distribution of subsidized seeds—things that we think will be beneficial to women.

Have there been changes in the north with regards to women’s access to land?

Because of some advocacy and engagement activities, land owners now give women some land to farm. But giving land is one thing and ownership is another. This is about rural women’s lack of economic capacity to buy land, so what we do is negotiate for long-term tenure of land—and we are seeing a change around that.

Do you think that women in the north will make progress in farming when they are given access to farmland and economically empowered?

Why not! If they have productive land and are able to get resources, and have the right information and access to technology and all of that, why not? Women are already dominant in the agricultural sector, except in the area of commercialization. But there are many women in agriculture and I’m positive that, if they are supported to have productive land and other resources, they are definitely going to do well.

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Hello!! If you are listening to us, this is the farmers’ program called Farm Right, with me your regular host. We are discussing women’s access to farmland with a focus on the Northern Region of Ghana. We have spoken with Hajia Lamnatu Adam, who gave us an overview of the challenges faced by women in accessing farmland. Now let’s speak to a woman with a success story, Sumani Mariama. Please introduce yourself and tell us about yourself and your farming history.

My name is Sumani Mariama, and I live at Gizaa Gundaa in the Kumdungu District of the Northern Region. I was blessed with four children: two boys and two girls. The first child is no more so now I have three children.

Tell us about your farming history.

I started farming 10 years before the death of my husband, and have been farming for 10 years since then, so it’s been about 20 years that I have been farming maize and groundnut. The challenge earlier was that there wasn’t enough land. My husband had three wives and we just had three acres each. But I was capable of farming more than three acres. I got one additional acre of land after one of the wives relocated to make four acres.

So you totally own this land?

Yes.

How did that happen? Was it easy to inherit the land after the death of your husband? Did someone try to take the land from you?

Some of my late husband’s senior brothers wanted to try that because I am a woman. I saw that they were trying to take the land through their actions and some requests and questions, but they couldn’t openly mention it. They saw that my children were grown, especially one who is a tractor operator and helps me plough the land—and my daughter who operates a store helps to get fertilizers. When they saw those children, they didn’t pursue their intentions further because they didn’t see how to overcome the children.

How are your yields?

For maize, it depends on the quantity of fertilizer you have. In years that I get some fertilizer, I can harvest eight bags per acre, but when I don’t get fertilizer, I can only get five bags. I can get eight bags of groundnut an acre with fertilizer and seven and a half bags without fertilizer. Groundnut is a bit more profitable than the maize because I don’t need fertilizers—you only need good rains.

Do you farm for commercial purposes or to support your family? If so, is it your nuclear family or do you support the extended family as well?

It is just within the household. But my son has now built a house for me and moved me there. When we were at the family house, I farmed to support the entire family. I used the maize to prepare koko (Editor’s note: porridge prepared from sieved maize, otherwise known as mmore koko) throughout the year, and the groundnut to make soups throughout the year. But now that my son has moved me from the family house, he provides me with food, so now I can sell some of my yield.

Can you describe the feeling of owning land as a woman, especially with your background in the northern part of Ghana?

I feel like a champion because, as you know, it is very rare for a woman to own land to farm in my community.

Tell us about the situation in your community. How are your fellow women working to acquire land to farm?

In my community, men now realize that if a woman is doing small-scale farming, they are helping the men as well. But there is a nearby community where the women cannot get even one piece of land to farm. So during groundnut harvesting, those women come to my community to help us harvest. After harvest, we give them some groundnuts so they can also prepare soup. There are a lot of sisters coming to support my groundnut harvest—not just to support me but in order to get some groundnuts to help with their soups. So I feel sad for them.

You mentioned that in your community, men have realized that if women are given access to farmland, they can help the family a lot. Are you part of the success story that helped in shaping these men’s minds?

As I mentioned, in my community, men have come to realize that if you get land for your woman and you run short of food, the woman can support you with what she has. This is why the men in my immediate community now think that it is necessary to give their women access to some part of their land to farm. Some men also saw my success in supporting my husband when he was alive and when there were food shortages. So they also try to give their wives some land. So I would say that my success helped some other women to get farmland.

How many women in your community have land now?

By my estimation, our community is about 100 households and every woman in every house now has about one or two acres to farm. So about 100 to 200 women here have land to farm because in most households, there is more than one wife. But most of them do not own the land.

What advice would you give to communities that do not give women access to land?

My advice to men who have land and wives is that whatever land a woman has, she can use the proceeds from her farm to support the household. So any land you give to a woman for farming, you use the product both for yourself and the family. I advise men not to see themselves as different from their women in this regard. If both the man and the woman farm and you do not have enough, you can take the woman’s crops, because whatever the woman has is definitely used to support the family. So all men should know that they are doing themselves harm by not supporting women with land to farm.

What support do you give to women who do not own land at all?

During harvesting, I shared with those who come and support me. I divide my harvest in three: I take two parts and one is shared among those who come to help. Aside from that, if any of them are family members and need a little groundnuts or maize for some reason, I cannot allow them to suffer that way.

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If you understand the African setting well, you know that chiefs play a major role in acquiring land. Let’s talk to the community chief where Sumani Mariama lives. He will give us a better understanding of the challenges that women face around access to farmland and also tell us what he has been doing over the years to support disadvantaged women.

Mr. John Mahama, I understand you work closely with women like Sumani. Can you further explain the situation to us?

Actually, my palace is at Gizaa Gundaa, and almost all the places where women are farming are in my area. What normally happens is that every farmer who clears the bush for farmland, it becomes his and his children’s land. As a chief, I have land that is mainly for me, and I have land that I have distributed to women who did not receive land from their husbands.

Some women have grandchildren and they do not have enough land to support the entire family. These women come to me when it is time to farm and I give them land—not permanent land, just for this year. Next year if they are not in a position to farm it, I will give it to another woman to farm free of charge.

It’s nice to know that you help women who do not have farmland. For these women who do not have farmland, is it because they are not married or because they do not have family land to farm on?

An extended family might include the father’s wives and his children’s wives, but the father is the one who has the land and gives it to his wives. But if a farmer doesn’t have land to give to his wives, wives must support the mother-in-law by helping with all farming activities. If a woman is capable of farming, she should see a chief who has enough land to give them to farm.

Many thanks, Chief Mahama, for talking with us and continuing to support the women in your area.

All too soon we have come to the end of another insightful edition of Farm Right. I want to ask our earlier resource persons something: after listening to Sumani Mariama and the chief, do you have any final words of advice?

Well, I think it’s important to negotiate and advocate with landowners to help women get access to productive land. Because when women are empowered, it trickles down to families, societies, and to the nation. Apart from that, there is also a need to ask traditional authorities to lend women land, and to especially ensure that inherited land is given to women.

Many thanks to our resource persons and to you, our listeners, for making today’s program a success. Enjoy the rest of the week until we meet same time next week. Bye!