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UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES

AGRICULTURAL COMMERCIALIZATION AND ITS IMPACTS ON LAND

TENURE RELATIONS IN THE NANUMBA NORTH DISTRICT

BY

ALIU AMINU

(10508519)

THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN

PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF

MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN AFRICAN STUDIES

JULY, 2016 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh

DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own research work and I remain solely responsible for any shortcomings in this study. The research was carried out in the

Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, under the supervision of Professor Kojo

S. Amanor and Dr. Osman Alhassan. All relevant references cited in this work have been duly acknowledged. This work is not presented in full or in part to any other institution for examination.

Aliu Aminu (10508519) …………………… …………………..

Student name and ID Signature Date

Principal Supervisor

Professor Kojo S. Amanor ……………… ………………….

Signature Date

Co- Supervisor

Dr. Osman Alhassan …...……………… ………………......

Signature Date

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DEDICATION This research work is dedicated to my late Father, Mumuni Aliu (Zori Aliu) who died during my course work on this programme and my late Mother, Mahama Azara, for the faith and confidence she reposed in me at early hours of my education.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks go to my two supervisors, Professor Kojo S. Amanor and Dr. Osman

Alhassan for accepting to supervise this thesis and the professional manner they guided me through this research work. But for their suggestions and critical lenses, I do not think this research could have seen the light of day.

I also wish to acknowledge the financial support I received from Volkswagen Foundation through the candid effort of Dr. Micheal Ayamba, African Post-Doctoral Fellow from

UDS-Tamale and Dr. Wolfram Laube, European Post-Doctoral Fellow, Bonn-Germany who equally provided constructive criticisms that eventually shaped and opened my mind towards this work. Another person who deserves mention is Professor/Dr. Friederike

Diaby Pentzlin, who encouraged me to work hard to merit the confidence reposed in me.

I will also like to acknowledge the parental guidance I have received from Mr. Silas

Natomah and his wife, Mrs. Nyadiya Ayi for providing me accommodation throughout the course period.

Finally, I will like to thank the Almighty Allah for bringing me this far in the academic cycle. This achievement could not have been possible without His gift of life, determination, and fortitude to fight on to this level.

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ABSTRACT The focus of recent literature is on land grabbing through international investment in African agriculture that has attracted much attention in the media but overlooks the processes of social differentiation in rural communities, which is also resulting in processes of accumulation of large expanses of farmland by emerging commercial farmers. There are multiple pathways by which agricultural commercialization and land consolidation can occur. This study explored emergent land markets within rural areas and the impact of agricultural commercialization on various forms of land transactions and labour relations, and the extent to which this results in the dispossession of smallholder farmers in the Nanumba North District. Appropriation of agricultural land can occur through accumulation from (1) below, by investments of smallholder farmers within a process of investing farm profits in further expansion of farming activities. It can also occur from (2) above, by investments of other actors who have accumulated capital outside of agriculture into agriculture, which they see as a profitable venture. Farmland appropriations can also occur through (3) rental markets, neo-customary and informal mechanisms based on notions of a moral economy rooted in reciprocity, obligations, exchange of services and gifts, and debt.

This thesis argues that, the main source of accumulation within agriculture occurs from investments of traders, civil servants, bureaucrats who use their savings to gain access to farmlands. The research employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data gathering. The sample size was sixty farmers which comprised of twenty commercial farmers, fifteen women, and ten labourers as well as fifteen small-scale farmers. The findings revealed that the new path ways in which people accumulate agriculture land from poor farmers is through the hiring of tractors and providing ploughing services to land owners in exchange for land which reveals that land owners lack the necessary capital to hire tractor services.

The study concludes that majority of the farmers who have tractors were civil servants who accumulated their capital from non-farm activities and use this to influence land owners to appropriate vast expanse of farmlands through the provision of ploughing

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services and hiring out of tractors. It is recommended that government facilitates access to market agricultural services such as tractor ploughing for smallholders, ensuring that these are widely available and not controlled by a class of aspiring large-scale farmers with political connections.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ...... i DEDICATION ...... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii ABSTRACT ...... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vi CHAPTER ONE ...... 1 1.1 Introduction ...... 1 1.2 Problem Statement ...... 3 1.3 Conceptual framework ...... 3 1.4 Research Objectives ...... 6 1.5 Research Questions ...... 7 1.6 Research Methodology ...... 7 1.6.1 Research Design ...... 7 1.6.2 Sampling Design ...... 8 1.6.3 Data collection methods and techniques ...... 10 1.7 Relevance of this Study ...... 11 1.8 Organization of this Study ...... 12 CHAPTER TWO ...... 14 LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 14 2.1 Introduction ...... 14 2.2 Concept of Agricultural Commercialization ...... 17 2.3 Land and Labour Markets in Agricultural Commercialization ...... 21 2.4 Land Tenure Systems in Africa ...... 27 2.5 Conclusion ...... 30 CHAPTER THREE ...... 31

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THE NANUMBA NORTH DISTRICT ...... 31 3.1 Introduction ...... 31 3.2 Background Information on Nanun and its history ...... 32 3.3 Communal/Family Land Tenure Systems in Nanumba North District ...... 34 3.4 Mechanization of Agriculture and Agricultural Production in Nanun ...... 36 3.5 Agricultural production and markets in the area ...... 39 3.6 Relations between indigenes and settler groups...... 41 3.7 Role of chiefs in land tenure and distribution in Nanumba North District ...... 45 3.8 Changes in cropping system in Nanumba North District ...... 47 3.9 Impact of agricultural commercialization on labour markets ...... 49 3.10 Conclusion ...... 54 CHAPTER FOUR ...... 55 IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL COMMERCIALIZATION ON LAND AND LABOUR IN NANUMBA NORTH DISTRICT ...... 55 4.1 Introduction ...... 55 4.2 Perception of farmers on commercial farming activities ...... 61 4.3 Access to farmland in Nanun ...... 63 4.5 Patterns of investment in crop production in Nanun ...... 73 4.6 Relationship between land owners and commercial farmers ...... 75 4.7 Labour and Commercial Farming Relations ...... 79 4.7 Conclusion ...... 86 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 88 APPENDIX ...... 101

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List of Acronyms

ADVANCE Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement Program

AG Agricultural Commercialization

AM Agricultural Mechanization

AMSEC Agricultural Mechanization Service Enterprise Centers

BC Brigade Camps

CF Commercial Farmers

LLB Land and Labour Markets

MIS Management Information System

MOFA Ministry of Food and Agriculture

WB World Bank

WDR World Development Report

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List of Tables

Table 4.1 Acreages cultivated by tractor owners and hirers of tractor services ...... 57

Table 4.2 Nature of land acquisition by tractor owners and tractor hirers ...... 59

Table 4.3 The origins of farmers ...... 69

Table 4.4 Occupations of farmers and tractor owners ...... 70

Table 4.5 Land holdings of different occupation groups ...... 71

Table 4.6 Crops cultivated by farmers ...... 75

List of figures

Figure 3.1 A Map of Nanumba North District showing the farming communities ...... 53

Figure 4.1: A chart showing the usage of farm machinery ...... 60

Figure 4.2: A chart illustrating forms of land acquisition ...... 67

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CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction

Recent interest in investing in African agriculture has generated debates about land grabbing (Zoomers, 2010; GRAIN, 2008), though land grabbing is not a recent phenomenon as attested by the large areas of land alienated from local farmers in white settler colonies (Moyo et al., 2008, Ntsebeza 2005, Amin 1972). However, recent developments are resulting in an internal land rush (Jayne et al., 2014; Peters, 2004) emanating from agricultural commercialization. Commercial agriculture refers to the production of significant amount of cash commodities, allocating a significant proportion of production resources to marketable commodities or selling a considerable portion of agricultural products by farmers (Von Braun, 1994; Jaleta et al., 2009; Pingali et al.,

2010; Zhou 2013). Cases drawn from Southeast Asia and Latin America show that there are multiple pathways by which agricultural commercialization and land consolidation can occur (Poulton et al., 2008).

These commercialization pathways are either driven by smallholder accumulation, such as in the northeast region of Thailand or through large-scale investments in commercial agriculture, as in Cerrado region of Brazil (Poulton et al.,

2008; Morris et al., 2009; World Bank, 2009). Yet in Africa there is insufficient evidence on how commercialization and land consolidation occurs over time due to the limited nature of studies (Muyanga et al., 2013; Chapoto et al., 2013; Poulton et al., 2008).

Peters (2004) argues that increasing competitiveness and concentration within agriculture creates pressures on smallholders that ultimately result in dispossession. Dispossession

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arises in two major forms. Firstly, from below, in which the increasing commercialization of smallholder production and its integration into global agri-food chains results in the expansion of more successful commercial smallholders at the expense of less commercial producers. Secondly, the development of a land market opens the possibility of distress- sales by the poor in times of hardship, thus accelerating social differentiation and landlessness among the poor (Woodhouse and Chimwohu, 2006; Peters 2004)

Access to land in most of sub-Saharan Africa is determined by indigenous systems of land tenure that have evolved over time under local and colonial influences

(Cheater 1990; Lund 2002). Empirical evidence suggests that in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century African farmers were actively engaged in expanding agricultural output in response to new local and international markets. For instance, Hill‘s (1963) study of the origins of cocoa farming in Ghana in the first two decades of the twentieth century, and Bundy‘s (1979) work on African farming in South Africa before the 1913 Land Act show quite clearly the rapid evolution of land markets. This resulted in the formation of alliances by most migrant Ghanaian cocoa farmers to purchase from chiefs tracts of forest which they then cleared for cocoa farms. The South African peasants who supplied food to mining towns were able to purchase titles to the land they farmed, titles that subsequently presented significant obstacles to the removal of their descendants from the land by the apartheid regime.

Teye et al., (2016) noted that the nature of agricultural commercialization has been largely smallholder-based and less centered on large scale acquisitions. However, recent revived interest in commercial investments created the conditions for large-scale

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land acquisitions in Ghana. This study explores ways in which agricultural commercialization transforms customary land tenure relations in the Nanumba North

District in the Northern Region of Ghana.

1.2 Problem Statement

The research on competitive struggles over land and land-based resources clearly shows the involvement of state agencies, members of elites and a national ‗dominant class‘. Yet, there is scanty information on the role being played by local actors who are primarily involved in the accumulation of land resulting in the growth of the emergent farm sector. More so, little is known about the role of local land markets in the process of emergent farmland accumulation or consolidation.

This study contributes to the literature on the emergence of middle-scale commercial farmers in Africa (Jayne et al., 2014), in which to date few studies have been carried out in Ghana, with the exception of Teye, Yaro and Torkivey (2016) paper presented at 2016 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, who study various forms of agricultural commercialization including the emergence of commercial mango farmers in Somanya farming up to 200 hectares. This study further explores emergent land markets within rural areas and the impact of agricultural commercialization on various forms of land transactions and labour relations, and the extent to which this results in the dispossession of smallholder farmers.

1.3 Conceptual framework

In recent times, a large body of literature has dealt with international investment in African agriculture (Policy & Practice, 2010; Cotula 2009; Amanor 2012). ―Land

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grabbing‖ has attracted much attention in the media, but overlooks the processes of social differentiation in rural communities, which is also resulting in processes of accumulation of large expanses of farmland by emerging commercial farmers. Emergent farmers are defined as cultivating between 5 ha to 100 ha of farmland (Jayne et al., 2014).

Widespread appropriation of farmland in rural communities are orchestrated by elites and are situated within broader processes of social inequality and class formation as well as the development of land markets (Amanor, 2001; Peter, 2004; Oya, 2007).

Rural inequalities and rural social differentiation have been quite significant in much of Africa, even before the era of neoliberalism. Sender and Smith (1986) provide a long list of rural surveys in different parts of rural Africa, which invariably demonstrate that some rural entrepreneurs possessed extensive tracts of land, often appropriated land that had previously been occupied by smallholder farmers. Jayne et al., (2014) conducted a survey in (Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia), which indicated that the pace of land acquisitions by medium-scale African investors, now control more land than large-scale foreign investors. Their samples were drawn from lists of farms compiled by district agricultural authorities and from local farmer-based organizations. Farmers were listed as medium-scale if they were believed to hold between five and one hundred hectares.

Jayne et al. (2014) noted the difficulty involved in establishing the total hectares under cultivation, but the Ministry of Agriculture data files suggest that roughly 0.24,

0.36, and 0.30 million hectares are under domestic large-scale landholdings in Ghana,

Kenya, and Zambia, respectively. In Ghana, farmlands over ten hectares accounted for

11.1 percent of total area under cultivation in 1992, but this rose to 36.7 percent by 2005.

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In Kenya, rural population growth and land subdivision have led to an alarming rise in the proportion of very small farms. Between 1994 and 2006, the proportion of Kenya‘s farms smaller than one hectare rose from 44.8 to 67.2 percent. However, within this farm size category, there was a curious 230 percent increase in average landholding size over this twelve-year period, from 13.2 to 31.1 hectares. Jayne et al. (2014) further noted that majority in Zambia acquired their farms after the age of forty. Using their savings from their non-farm jobs, they were able to acquire farms and start farming during their mid- life stages. Those who accumulated farmlands from below entered farming earlier than their counterparts. They tend to have smaller holdings than more recent entrants from the non-farm sector, but they put a greater proportion of their land under cultivation. The findings revealed two categories of accumulators thus, people primarily engaged in non- farm jobs and investing in land and relatively privileged rural-born men who were then able to acquire large landholdings as they started out their careers (Jayne et al., 2014).

While researchers recognize social differentiation across Africa, they do not agree on a single interpretive model for its analysis. Many studies distinguish rural populations according to parameters based on landholding size, income, type of livelihood strategy

(such as the degree of farm production compared with wage labour) or combinations of these. Commodification shapes, reshapes and transforms pre-existing social and cultural ideas, practices and relations in most parts of rural communities (Oya 2007; Peters 2004;

Amanor 1999).

Understanding the processes of commodification or appropriation among rural farmers allows the focus of analysis to concentrate on the dynamics and trajectories of

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social change (Bernstein & Woodhouse 2001: 319). The intensification of production and increased reliance on the market for inputs and for many basic necessities has led to competition over land and labour, revealed in increased transfers of land through rentals, sharecropping and sales. This also results in divisions within families following the stress lines of generations and gender and increasing social stratification.

Clearly, the colonial and postcolonial governments have had profound effects on both the conditions under which customary and other claims and rights are defined and contested and on the framing of those claims and rights. As Amanor (1999: 20) postulates, the ‗structures of inequality‘ across generations, genders and communities have to be placed within ‗wider processes of commodification of agriculture and social differentiation‘. A key socio-cultural dynamic of differentiation emerging from the literature turns on divisions within significant social units – family, lineage, village, tribe or ethnically defined group. Sometimes, competition over land leads to efforts to exclude some users through various types of enclosure (Peters 1994; Amanor 1999; 2001;

Chauveau, 2000; Colin 2013).

1.4 Research Objectives

The specific objectives of this research include:

1) To examine the relationship between investment in land and agricultural

commercialization.

2) To examine the impact of agricultural commercialization on social differentiation.

3) To examine the impact of agricultural commercialization on farming strategies.

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4) To identify the responses of different categories of rural farmers to agricultural

commercialization.

1.5 Research Questions

The main research questions include the following:

1) What are the main developments in agricultural commercialization in the area?

2) What are the patterns of investments in land for agricultural purposes?

3) What is the rationale for these investments?

4) Who are the main investors in agriculture?

5) What are the origins and sources of capital for investment?

6) Who are agricultural lands being acquired from?

7) What are the bases for these transactions?

1.6 Research Methodology

1.6.1 Research Design

This study uses a mixed method of integrating quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis in a single study (Creswell et al., 2003; Stange et al., 2006) to generate new knowledge involving either concurrent or sequential use of two classes of methods to follow a line of inquiry. Bulsara (undated) further explains that mixed methods research involves collecting, analysing, and integrating or mixing quantitative and qualitative research, and data in a single study or a longitudinal programme of inquiry. Other sources included secondary sources (journals, articles, published books, conference and research reports, working papers, and websites). Secondary sources

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relevant to this study were used to get an insight into what the land tenure system in

Nanun used to be and it‘s changing trends and information on commercial farming.

Primary data gathering for this thesis spanned the period from October 2015 to March

2016. Nanumba North district was chosen for this research and its administrative capital of Bimbilla houses most of the commercial farmers.

1.6.2 Sampling Design

Sixty farmers including commercial farmers, laborers, and women were interviewed from five farming communities in Nanumba North District to develop a pattern and offer a deeper appreciation of the research problem. The involvement of labourers was to help in the understanding of the perception of these categories of the process of land commodification and its impact on their lives, their access to and resources, and food security. It was also to find out if there are conflicts over land.

This segment of the population was sampled with the use of purposive sampling technique. I simply identified one commercial farmer through a key informant in

Bimbilla and after a successful interview; he/she then mentioned at least three names of other farmers who were known to be commercial farmers in the study area. Every commercial farmer who was interviewed during the process mentioned at least three or more commercial farmers. The labourers and small-scale farmers who were interviewed also assisted in identifying notable commercial farmers in the area and systematically the sample size was realized through that technique. I then moved into compounds within the communities and selected adults who were available and residents of those houses, and willing to be interviewed. To avoid overrepresentation of a particular household or

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gender, I made sure that, not more than two people from the same household were included in the sample, and that the two household members were not of the same sex.

The Bimbilla-Na is the custodian of Nanun land and he delegates this custodianship to his sub-chiefs who are in charge of the day-to-day administration of the land and its resources (Staniland, 1975; Mahama, 2004). Because of the position of the chiefs as custodians of land in their respective communities, some of them were purposively selected for interview. The chief of Vo-Naa (Reagent of late Naa Abarika

Atta) and the Regent of Chamba town were interviewed.

The District Managing Director of MOFA, the MIS District Agricultural Officer and the Agricultural Extension Officer for Bimbilla were purposively selected because of their official positions and they assisted me to have a fair idea of how agriculture is being commercialized. It was further explained that farmers who have farmlands below five acres were categorized as smallholders and farmers with farmland holdings more than 5 acres were deemed as commercial farmers. Ten laborers were also interviewed from among laborers who were harvesting rice on commercial farm at the time of the survey.

Interviews were carried out during the resting time for the laborers. However, some of the laborers were still busy even when they were supposed to be on break. In the end, I interviewed those who were willing to be interviewed. In all, primary data collected from the sample ranged from the social profile of commercial farmers and laborers, and the impact of commercial farming on members of the communities who may have multiple rights in communal lands and other natural resources.

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1.6.3 Data collection methods and techniques

A research assistant from Bimbilla was employed to help me administer and complete the semi-structured questionnaires. The researcher discussed the concept of commercial farming, objectives and the research questions the thesis intended to answer, the translation of certain terms for commercial farming activities in the community and all questions in the survey questionnaires with the assistant before we embarked on the data gathering. At the community level, we also employed the services of two community members – one from Chamba and another person from Lepusi because of his position as

‗Dema Naa‘ (entertainment chief) – who led us to opinion leaders in the community. In

Chamba, our first point of call was the Assemblyman, a local resident for the Chamba electoral area to explain our mission to him. The assistant spoke many languages including the Konkomba language and this facilitated the interview process from the field.

Primary data collection in the selected communities was done using personal survey interview questionnaires and in-depth interviews (open-ended and semi- structured). Open-ended questionnaires were used to interview traditional authorities, the

District Director of MOFA, the Agricultural Extension Officer for the communities and laborers on commercial farms. Two different sets of semi-structured questionnaires were also administered to the selected commercial farmers and ordinary farmers (both men and women in the community). A focus group discussion was carried out with a section of the youth in the community to understand the farming practices in the area including the crops that are grown. This section of the youth was comprised of labourers, tractor operators and farmers in the community, who helped me, understand the farming 10

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strategies and the relationships that exist among commercial farmers, land owners, and laborers.

I also carried out in-depth interviews with the selected respondents who were made up of commercial and peasant farmers and some community members so as to understand the land acquisition process and how it impacts on their land relations. This in-depth interview method helped me go beyond just the number of farmers and the acreage they cultivate. It also gave me much information on how easily the people lose their farmlands to commercial farmers in exchange for ploughing services and the extent to which people use their influence to gain access to farmlands. Participant observation as a technique for gathering data was also employed in the study. This included observation of social phenomenon through interaction with the people in the communities. In-depth interviews were recorded with using an audio recorder. A field notebook was also used to record the salient points during interview sections and informal discussions.

1.7 Relevance of this Study

This study contributes to the argument by Woodhouse and Chimwohu (2006) that intensification of production and increased reliance on the market for inputs and for many basic necessities has led to competition over land and labour, resulting in transfers of land through rentals, sharecropping, and sales.

The study also supports an assertion by Jayne et al., (2014) that people primarily engaged in non-farm jobs are now investing in farmland and only relatively privileged

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rural-born men are then able to acquire large landholdings as they started out their careers. The new entrants tend to have large scale of farmland than traditional farmers and it is the small-scale farmers who are losing out their farmlands in exchange of ploughing services.

The new pathways in which people accumulate agricultural land from poor farmers is through the hiring of tractors and providing ploughing services to landowners in exchange for land which reveals that landowners may lack the necessary capital to hire tractor services.

The study also revealed that majority of the farmers who have tractors were civil servants who accumulated their capital from non-farm activities, which builds on the argument of Oya (2007) that locally based entrepreneurs have engaged in the appropriation of farmlands which leads to the emergence of social differentiation among rural farmers.

1.8 Organization of this Study

The research is organized into five chapters. After this introductory chapter, the next chapter contains the literature review where it is documented that commercialization of agriculture is not a new phenomenon in the area but has taken different twist and turns in most communities. It thereby argues that accumulation of farmlands do not necessarily occur in structured markets alone but also through informal processes of accumulation in rural communities.

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The third chapter provides background information of the study area and the kind of land tenure relations that exist in the area. It is argued in that chapter that there is a linkage between agriculture production and markets and how this leads to networks and building of relationship among farmers and traders. In chapter four, the various pathways through which appropriations of land occur in Nanun are analyzed. It argues that there are multiple pathways through which appropriation of land can occur. The chapter further highlights a more nuanced perspective of appreciating different forms of local land markets and it necessarily does not have to occur through only formal markets.

Last but not the least, chapter five is a summary of the findings of the research, conclusion, and recommendations which emphasise the need for further research into the internal land rush in Africa. Those who have been engaged in these appropriations are not external agents but local based farmers who secure farmlands from farmers through the provision of ploughing services by tractor owners and others through the hiring of tractors to provide ploughing services in exchange of land from land owners. Landowners do not have the networks or financial capital to expand agriculture and rather heavily rely on the services of commercial farmers to get their fields ploughed for them.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

Western companies have been in the spotlight for acquiring millions of hectares of farmland in Africa in recent years. The focus of land grabbing by external agents for agricultural developments is often treated as an isolated issue that dominated the headlines overtime but land grabbing also occurs alongside forms of accumulation of land at the national level. A significant number of informal paths in land acquisitions of largely unknown proportions by a somewhat disguised class of ―emergent‖ or medium- scale local farmers rather engaged in the appropriation of farmlands. Public debates about transnational deals have diverted attention from this important source of pressures on the land (Jayne et al., 2014; Cotula, 2012; Zoomers, 2009).

In many parts of Africa, villagers are feeling the squeeze, not because of land acquisitions by global capitalists, but because of growing land concentration within the rural area. A World Bank study covering the period 2004 to 2009 found that local based farmers accounted for 97 percent of the land area acquired in Nigeria, and for half or more in Sudan (78 percent), Ethiopia (49 percent) and Mozambique (53 per cent).

Similarly, in Senegal, acquisitions by local based farmers account for 61 per cent of acquired land areas according to one inventory (Cotula, 2012; Jayne et al., 2014). Land policies of African governments and agricultural development plans have largely been prepared in an information vacuum, based on prior assumptions of land abundance despite warnings of ―African enclosures‖ processes unfolding in some parts of rural

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Africa. The possibility that indigenous rural communities may face land access problems associated with constraints on cropland expansion raises important policy questions that are seldom considered in national development strategies.

Debates about the development of agricultural capitalism in Africa are structured around the nature of integration of smallholder farmers into agricultural markets and the emergence of capitalism in smallholder agriculture. This focuses on the extent to which the expansion of agrarian capitalism results in the survival or reproduction of petty commodity producers and the increasing social differentiation of the peasantry. This is manifest in theories of alternative paths to capitalist agriculture and appropriation from above and below (Bernstein, 2004; Oya, 2007).

Appropriation of land needs to be placed in the context of longer-term processes of capital accumulation and social differentiation within the nations concerned. Urban groups have acquired large landholdings in rural areas. Politicians, government officials and business people based in towns have used their influence within the state apparatus to forge alliances with customary land management authorities to take control of rural land.

Growing land concentration has been driven by processes rooted in rural areas too. More dynamic farmers have been able to increase their landholdings at the expense of other groups. And in many places, customary chiefs have reinterpreted their land management responsibilities as rights of ownership.

It is often assumed that the emergence of agricultural commercialization is consistent with a relatively low incidence of landlessness in African social formations or with ‗accumulation without dispossession‘ Berry (1993). Class formation and

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differentiation in much of rural Africa are complex processes that do not exactly replicate patterns of social differentiation in other regions. There is a complex interaction between class, lineage-kinship and generational relations, which produce outcomes that can be very location specific. At the same time, the very coexistence of different forms or varieties of agrarian capitalism from large-scale agribusiness to peasant capitalism, and their shifting fortunes as a result of external and internal dynamics, also underpin differences in the nature of rural capitalist classes and the process of differentiation across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Oya, 2007; Amanor, 2001).

Agricultural commercialization plays a major role in the contemporary processes of social change and rural transformations in most part of Africa. Understanding the various paths of agricultural accumulation by emergent commercial farmers - where they get their initial capital, how they acquire and expand land, how they mobilize labour, their access to capital and loans, their savings and investment patterns, and how inheritance works in terms of concentration or dispersion of capital assets in any given dispensation - is critical to understanding agricultural development (Oya, 2007).

This chapter examines the literature on processes of agricultural commercialization through which emergent commercial farmers enclose lands within rural communities and how it impacts on land tenure relations. It reviews the literature on the concepts of agricultural commercialization, land and labor markets in agricultural commercialization, land tenure relations in Africa, and the relationship between agricultural commercialization and land tenure systems.

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2.2 Concept of Agricultural Commercialization

The World Bank‘s World Development Report (WDR) emphasize on Agriculture commercialization for the development of African agriculture especially for Sub-Saharan

Africa. The region is mostly agriculture-based and growth will happen through investment where the agricultural potential is medium to large scale, while at the same time ensuring the livelihoods and food security of subsistence farmers. Therefore agriculture development requires improving access to markets and developing modern market chains which they believe will stimulate a smallholder-based productivity revolution aimed at achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction through the development of commercial agriculture (World Bank, 2007). Another World Bank (WB) report, Awakening Africa's Sleeping Giant argued that, for the foreseeable future, reducing poverty in Africa will depend largely on stimulating agricultural growth (World

Bank, 2009).

Nevertheless, various authors have criticized the WB approach to engage smallholders in commercial markets and see the WDR to be consistent with the World

Bank‘s mistaken philosophy of agricultural markets in Africa resulting in exclusion of smallholders and a consequence of the type of project that was envisaged in the Sleeping

Giant report (World Bank, 2009). Amanor (2009) highlights the differential but often exclusionary results of agribusiness investment and market access. The World Bank noted that national agendas for agriculture need differentiation to reflect differences in priorities and structural conditions across the three agricultural worlds. Kay (2009) indicated that the WDR advocates three pathways out of rural poverty which can be based on agriculture, the non-farm economy or outmigration but are unlikely to help the 17

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poorest of the poor. Rather than accounting for differentiation within the rural population, the approach of the World Bank is a prescription for furthering rural capitalism which fails to address the development challenges facing the majority of independent rural smallholders.

Amanor (2012) noted that increasing competitiveness and concentration within agriculture creates pressures on smallholders that ultimately result in dispossession.

Dispossession arises in two ways. Firstly, from below, in which the increasing commercialization of smallholder production and its integration into global agri-food chains results in the expansion of more successful commercial smallholders at the expense of less commercial producers, or in the movement of producers with options into other sectors leaving those best able to absorb declining margins of profit to fend for themselves. Jayne et al., (2014) indicated that those who appropriated from below belong to a significant minority of medium-scale farmers who started out in agriculture, but from a position of relative privilege. These farmers started out their careers with relatively large landholdings and had other characteristics, such as educational attainment, that are quite distinct from most small-scale farmers in Africa. On the other hand, appropriation from above covers a majority of the new entrants into medium-scale farming who are urban-based investors and accumulated cash savings and seek a stable long-term return on their investment. Cowen and Shenton (1996: 300) attributed the emergence of agricultural commercialization in Kenya to civil servants who owned and controlled capital in large farms, real estate and a gamut of enterprises in trade, tourism and some sectors of manufacturing industry.

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Oya (2007) noted that internal enclosure of land emerged mostly from the ranks of peasants ‗capitalism from below‘ as a result of farmers‘ differentiation, and not so much from pre-colonial landowning classes or chiefs. Secondly, a contrast can be made between West Africa, where artisanship and trade provided a significant pool of entrepreneurs for the accumulation of land. Thirdly, many of today‘s commercial farmers have, however, originated from families that had already previously accumulated some form of economic or political power. The importance of access to formal state-mediated wage employment for instances of rural accumulation has been highlighted by previous studies, which not only emphasize the role of access to a stable source of revenue but also the fact that skills acquired through state wage employment have been used to consolidate or spur different forms of rural entrepreneurship.

A study conducted by Jayne et al., (2014) illustrates that the area controlled by medium-scale landholdings in the five to one hundred hectare category now exceeds that of small-scale farms less than five hectares in Zambia. In Ghana, small-scale farms still accounted for a higher share of farmland than medium-scale farms. However, in all three cases, farms in the five to one hundred hectare category account for a significant share of the area under cultivation. Trends in the performance of medium-scale farms are hence likely to have a major impact on overall agricultural performance in these countries, and this impact is likely to become stronger over time, at least in Ghana and Zambia. A majority of farmers tend to have smaller holdings than more recent entrants from the non- farm sector, but they put a greater proportion of their land under cultivation. However, given the initial size of their land acquisitions, this group of relatively successful farmers is clearly not reflective of small-scale farmers. The median amount of land inherited from 19

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their parents, or otherwise acquired, was twenty-six hectares in Zambia and fourteen hectares in Kenya. Hence, a rather low percentage of medium-scale farmers correspond to a narrative of successful graduation out of small-scale status through reinvestment of their surplus and expanding their farms over time.

These investments may entail the move from one site of accumulation to another and ultimately the emergence of class (vertical) differentiation within kin groups, which, according to Berry (1985; 1993) reflects the mutual interaction between class and other forms of stratification (communal, lineage-related, gender) that appear to be common in

West Africa. The differences among rural accumulators in this respect lie in the extent to which some rural capitalists have initially accumulated on the basis of non-capitalist labour relations and gradually transformed them into capitalist ones, through increasing reliance on hired labour.

The dynamics of land relations are best understood within a framework that examines the commodification of land and labour and the impact of these on social relations and the transmission of property and land. The impact of increasing social differentiation and capital accumulation on family relations is evident in the relationship between family, hired and migrant labour. Conflicts over rights in land and rights to labour service have often shaped the development of land markets and the ways in which land is transmitted from one generation to the next, and this has often transformed family relations and values. The commercialization of agriculture leads to a decline of family farms, in which farming is conducted by various amalgamations of husband, wives, and children (Peters, 2004; Amanor, 1999).

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Teye et al., (2016) noted that large-scale agricultural land deals of the late 2000s were influenced by an assertion that foreign investments are needed to modernize agriculture. However, recent revived interest in commercial investments created the conditions for large-scale land acquisitions in Ghana. For instance, Teye et al., (2016) illustrated that commercial mango farmers in Somanya have the potential to swallow up peasants and displaced them of their possessions. The commercial area has the highest inequality in land ownership as domestic investors‘ crowd out the local farmers by purchasing lands hitherto used by these groups. The trend in commodification of land, especially on the changing forms of access, shows an evolutionary property rights system with increasing individualization of land rights.

Amanor & Pabi, (2007) noted that agricultural commercialization may result in a new coalition of elite farmers armed with tools to global markets coming to prominence and displacing the existing peasantries. All these developments symbolize an appreciable change in land transactions. Many of the responses of farmers are also conditioned by policy dimensions, which can have positive, negative, and unintended impacts.

2.3 Land and Labour Markets in Agricultural Commercialization

Land commercialization does not need the development of formal markets in land but can occur through vernacular markets and local idioms. Idioms of accumulation and labour mobilization in agricultural commercialization are also about evolving labour mobilization patterns among emerging rural accumulators and the conditions of labour supply induced by processes of rural differentiation, and evolving labour mobilization patterns. Vernacular land markets are informal processes of engaging in land transactions

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that occur outside the formal or structured systems of appropriating land which put pressure on local farmers and their access to farmlands. The various forms of vernacular land markets that occur in rural communities have been discussed by Chauveau (2000),

Colin (2013), Woodhouse and Chimwohu (2006), Amanor and Diderutuah (2001).

Chauveau (2000) describes the ―tutorat‖ land relation in Côte d‘Ivoire. The tutorat is a relationship between a migrant farmer and indigenous landowner based on a relationship of patronage. The migrant owns an obligation to the land giver, the ―tuteur‖, expressed through a moral economy of everyday civilities and providing labour services, gifts, and contributions to important social occasions. With the rapid expansion of migrants into southwestern Côte d‘Ivoire, the tutorat became a disguised form of land sale, in which land was transacted with migrants through the tutorat. Thus the moral economy of land became increasingly commoditized and land sales disguised as customary presentations. As a consequence, the youth clearly saw this as alienation of land and a sale of their rightful patrimony by the elders for selfish gain. This led to grievances that exploded into violence against the migrant population. However, with the massive arrival of migrants and the economic stake in land control with the development of smallholder plantation economy, the emergence and development of land sales often corresponded to a deepening and commodification of the migrants‘ initially symbolic gifts presented to the tuteur during the ceremony that settled the migrant on a piece of land. Through such transactions, the land transfer retains a strong relational dimension at least in the mind of the seller. The payment then does not end the relationship but establishes or perpetuates it.

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Colin (2013) observed another form of vernacular land market in the form of

Plant and Share (P&S) contract that brings together an ‗assignor‘ and a ‗taker‘ for the creation of new cocoa, palm or rubber plantations. The contract may be agreed upon between villagers, but also between villagers assigning land and city dwellers or technicians working in the agro-industrial sector as takers, especially regarding rubber and palm tree plantations. The general principle of P&S is that the assignor provides the land and the taker provides the capital, labour, and expertise needed to establish the perennial plantation. The taker is responsible for maintaining the plantation until it becomes productive. Once this happens, the sharing element kicks in. One can distinguish three variants of P&S contracts. The first and dominant type involves rights to the plantation but not to the land. When the plantation begins producing, it is shared between the taker and the landowner, who retains a right of ownership over all the land.

Thus, takers only have a right to the portion of the plantation allocated to them when it is shared out, which they can then farm independently. The second type involves rights to the plantation and to the land. When the sharing occurs, the taker acquires rights not only over part of the plantation but also obtains ownership rights to the land on which it stands. In the third type of contract, it is the harvest, rather than the plantation (and possibly the land) that is shared. Once the plantation starts producing, the taker gives the assignor part of the yield.

Amanor and Diderutuah (2001) argued that the abusa and abunu systems have been transformed from the relations that were typical of the classical colonial cocoa economy. It shows how share contracts have changed from a relationship between migrant labourers and landowning citizens, into a relationship between local citizens, 23

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land-hungry youth, and landowning family elders. Within this arena, it has undergone structural changes from a relationship between landowning family elders and youth into a relationship between close kin. As land becomes increasingly scarce within the family, the youth withdraw their labour from their families and work outside their kin group as casual workers or share tenants. However, with growing competition for land in the New

Abirem area, there was then increasing competition for share contracts. To gain access to land, youth negotiated share contracts with their families. This takes place within the context of new oil palm and citrus fruit development, both of which are seen as lucrative, but capital intensive. Since many of the elders who control land cannot afford to develop their own plantations, they are demanding a share in this new business in return for access to land.

The abusa land tenant system developed as a mode of land transaction through which sub-chiefs acquire their own cocoa farms by providing access to virgin land and receiving some years later a developed cocoa plantation. Similarly, landholders disguised the transactions of land with strangers, by masking this as an abusa relationship. Share contracts both express and disguise new ways of allocating, dispensing and transacting land. The abusa tenant system developed as a contractual arrangement between landless migrant labour and Akyem landowners for the development of cocoa. Migrant tenants cleared mature forest and planted cocoa plantations using their own capital. They maintained the cocoa plantation and the yield were divided into thirds, with the tenant taking two-thirds. An alternative arrangement (the abusa land system) involved the cocoa farms being shared once they came into bearing, in which the landowners took two-thirds

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of the land and the tenant the remainder. Through the abusa mechanism, the chiefs and landowners of Akyem Abuakwa were able to acquire considerable holdings in cocoa.

From the 1970s onwards there has been an increasing struggle between youth and elders within the agrarian economy over access to land and control over labour. Many rural youth are unwilling to work on their family farms, since they are not given sufficient land for their own farming needs. They prefer to work as share tenants on other people‘s land or to gain an income through hiring themselves out as casual labour. Elders are reluctant to release land to their sons and nephews since these young men are not working for them, and they will lose the revenue they might have got through abusa.

Rental arrangements are also forms of vernacular or local land markets. Colin et al., (2009) argue that rental arrangements emerged in Lower Côte d‘Ivoire in the 1960s for pineapple production and expanded in the 1980s and 1990s in Southern Côte d‘Ivoire.

Small plots of land were rented out for food crops, and to a much lesser extent, for pineapple production, with rental agreements usually covering a single cropping cycle – from a few months for maize, yam, and rice, to up to a year for cassava, and two and a half to three years for pineapple. The rent is paid in cash before the land is cultivated, except for rice production, for which it is sometimes paid in kind after the harvest (with a given number of sacks of rice per hectare). As with sales and P&S agreements, landlords in rental contracts are generally autochthones and the tenant‘s migrants.

Colin (2013) indicated that the emergence and development of land transactions in the forested area of Southern Côte d‘Ivoire was as a consequence of the mass influx of migrants coming from the savannas of the center and northern Côte d‘Ivoire, Upper Volta

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(which then became Burkina Faso). Woodhouse and Chimwohu (2006) argued that the mobility of labour has been an important factor driving commercialization of land in

Africa, and the literature suggests three categories of buyers. A first group derives from a new generation of what Berry (1993) calls the ‗new big men‘ of rural Africa. Using income earned from a full-time job and the knowledge and influence gained from bureaucratic and political offices and/ or experience, they usually buy land to take advantage of new opportunities in agriculture. Seeking land in communal areas is one way of gaining access to land without the cost of official registration and other procedures of formal land markets. A second group consists mostly of migrants who, lacking any customary land rights in the areas to which they have moved, usually resort to buying or renting land (Woodhouse et al. 2000). The third group usually consists of those with rights to land through kinship but, where land is scarce, have to resort to land purchase or rental, often from a senior male relative with land to spare.

Woodhouse and Chimwohu (2006) have indicated that failure to understand the nature and extent of land markets under customary tenure regimes risks obscuring the processes through which the poor have access to land and disabling efforts to maintain or improve that access. Cousins et al. (2005) opined that informal property systems currently support a robust rental market that is well suited to the poor. This raises a number of important questions about the extent of individualized control over the land being rented, and how this relates to notions of communal or tribal ownership. The complexity and fluidity of governance of land in many customary jurisdictions in Africa pose a challenge to empirical research. There are typically very limited records of

(commoditized) land exchanges due to the official view of such transactions as ‗illegal‘. 26

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A key indicator of commoditization of land is the transition from the ‗gifts‘ historically expected as tokens of acknowledgement of customary authority and of anticipated reciprocity to payments more closely related to exchange values of the land.

Commoditization of land works to the disadvantage of those with lower purchasing power, thus threatening reduced access to land and potentially further impoverishment for the poorer among existing land users. Although informal land markets are ‗socially embedded‘ within the social relations of contemporary African rural society, increasing competition and social conflict around land and landed resources across Africa belies the assumption that socially embedded systems of landholding and land use guarantee access (Peters, 2004; 278). Peters‘ view that contestations of such ‗socially embedded‘ rights both reflect and reproduce social differentiation and result in unequal outcomes, contrasts with Berry‘s (1993) influential interpretation that such contests encourage indefinite renegotiation and thus generally do not generate unequivocal or fixed outcomes.

2.4 Land Tenure Systems in Africa

Customary land tenure is seen as a field where social and political relationships are diverse, overlapping and competing. Property regimes are thus often analyzed in terms of processes of negotiation, in which people‘s social and political identities are central elements, and are also becoming contested terrain (Berry, 2002; Lund, 2002).

Peters (2002) identifies three basic positions in the literature with regard to the negotiability of customary tenure. During negotiations for farmland in rural communities, land ‗sales‘ are quite incomplete and socially embedded transactions. The object of the transaction and the rights transferred between autochthones and ‗strangers‘ are usually 27

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fairly vague leaving it open to question whether it is the land or the right to plant that has been purchased, with a timescale that is implicitly determined by the lifespan of the crop grown on the land. The fact that transactions are often socially embedded means that sales cannot always be considered complete in the sense of entirely freeing the buyer from any further obligations to the seller.

The first argues that the ambiguity and negotiability of customary tenure lead to a pervasive insecurity of rights of producers and to a lack of investment and inefficient uses. The second position identifies the negotiability and ambiguity of relations over land as a reflection of defining features of African societies, such as the hold social relations have over economic action, the dependence of individual actors on social networks to gain access to resources, and malfunctioning states. The third view argues that people‘s access to land is closely linked to membership of social networks and participation in political processes and is seen to open up possibilities of access to land for the poor and not as necessarily engendering insecurity and increasing inequality (Berry, 1993). This holds that the ambiguity and negotiability of customary tenure do not necessarily inhibit investment but leads to increasing inequality because some people are in a better bargaining position than others and there are limits to negotiability and ambiguity (Berry,

2002; Woodhouse, 2003). The first view was dominant from the 1960s to the 1980s

(Acock, 1962; Yudelman, 1964) but it has now been largely abandoned. Researchers such as Platteau (2000), Toulmin and Quan (2000) now appear to favor the second position, although with sufficient unanswered questions to leave open the possibility of accepting the third (Woodhouse, 2003). Others such as Cousins (2002), Peters (2002),

Shipton (2002) and Woodhouse (2003) support the third position based on mounting 28

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evidence of land appropriation by influential elites and increasingly restricted and insecure access to land (Abudulai, 1996; Reyna & Downs, 1988).

These debates point to the fact that negotiators or contestants in customary land matters seldom operate on level playing fields. Some have more negotiating power, and more defining and contesting powers than others (Shipton, 2002). When competition for land intensifies, the inclusive flexibility offered by customary rights can quickly become an uncharted terrain where the less powerful are vulnerable to exclusion as a result of the manipulation of ambiguity by the more powerful (Woodhouse, 2003). Ambiguity offers room for manoeuvre to small farmers and modest rural producers, but, at the same time, is exploited by the privileged in order to obtain advantage (Peters, 2002). Berry, for instance, invariably stresses the flexibility and negotiability of customary tenure, Amanor cautions that defining the customary as flexible, adaptive, and dynamic and hybrid creates problems for examining processes of change, since change has now become an intrinsic feature of institutions rather than a product of struggle between different social forces (2001). They do agree, however, that property relations are subject to intense contestation in cases where access to wealth and authority are undergoing rapid change.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the dominant framework in international development for land reform was one of promotion of land titling and registration under modernization theory paradigm. It was theorized that titling would enable farmers to gain loans against their farms, thereby improvement of land and agricultural development.

However, land titling has had little success in Africa and has supported the expansion of elite farmers and their appropriation of land lying in the customary sector without secured

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rights informal legal institutions. Bruce argues that this accumulation of land by commercial farmers is an abuse of state administration of land titling by elites with close ties to political regimes (1993).

2.5 Conclusion

This chapter has highlighted the various theories underpinning commercialization of agriculture and the kind of informal processes individuals engaged in other to access farmlands in most rural communities. The trajectories of these accumulations within communities and among farmers themselves and the internal land rush are not influenced by land grabbing by external actors as speculated by most media houses and the focus of recent literature. These processes of dispossession within rural communities are purely the handy work of internal systemic dynamics that puts the small-scale farmers in a worse situation in terms of controlling their farmlands. This has resulted in changing land relations due to activities of agricultural commercialization, the changes it brings about in agricultural technology and impact of these upon family relations, labour, capital, and transactions in land and the emergence of local markets in land in which land is transferred outside of formal land markets, but the processes of transferring land reflect processes of commodification and the creation of class groups and social differentiation in terms of access to farmlands. The next chapter looks at the setting of the area, the degree of agriculture production and relationship between different land users.

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CHAPTER THREE

THE NANUMBA NORTH DISTRICT

3.1 Introduction

There are a lot of factors that affect the success of agriculture and to a larger extend commercial farming. These factors as identified by Eaton and Shepherd (2001) are the suitability of utilities and communications; the availability of land; the physical, social and cultural environments; and the availability of needed inputs. Hence, there is the need to discuss the settings of the area this study examines – the Northern Region with emphasis on Nanumba North District. This chapter traces the history of the

Nanumba people with particular emphasis on those aspects that are relevant to this study and their economic activities, the communal or family land tenure systems, mechanization of agriculture and agricultural production, agriculture production and markets in Nanun, relations between indigenes and subjugated groups, and relations between rural and urban towns and role of chiefs in land tenure.

The area has a low population density but mechanization of agriculture has resulted in the rush for farmland for investment in food crop production and the district is noted for the production of large-scale agricultural commodities to feed the southern markets in Ghana. Climatically, the Northern Region is much drier than the southern sector of Ghana due to its proximity to the Sahel and the Sahara desert. It experiences two distinct seasons – dry and wet seasons – and this limits the cultivation of food crops throughout the year except in the few places with irrigation facilities. The wet season normally lasts from May to October with an average annual rainfall of 750 to 1050 mm

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(http://www.ghanadistricts.com), while the dry season is between November and April during which period the region records its highest temperatures with low humidity

(http://www.ghanadistricts.com). However, the hot harmattan winds from the Sahara blow frequently between December and the beginning of February. The high temperatures during this period are likely to impact on the type(s) of crops individual farmers can cultivate in the region.

3.2 Background Information on Nanun and its history

Geographically, the study is conducted in the Nanumba Traditional area which comprises the Nanumba North and Nanumba South District with Bimbilla as the traditional capital. The area is located in the North-Eastern part of Ghana and bounded by

East Gonja District (Gonja Land) to the west and south-west and Yendi Municipality to the North. To the East, it shares boundaries with Zabzugu District, and to the south-east, it shares boundaries with Volta Region.

Nanun is a kingdom of about 350, 000 with a growth rate of 3.5 (2010 Population and Housing Census). The people are traditionally farmers and live in village communities. These communities are ruled by chiefs who are either royal divisional chiefs or non-royals. Within the capital itself are a retinue of chiefs who assist the chief in the administration of the kingdom. The Bimbilla Naa is viewed as the owner, caretaker and chief administrator of the kingdom. The land was divided into two administrator regions in (2004); Nanumba North and Nanumba South with Bimbilla and Wulensi as their respective administrative capitals. The Nanumba North District has a total population of 141,584, with females representing 50.6 percent and males 49.4 percent.

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The corresponding sex ratio (males to 100 females) in the district is 97.8, which implies that there are approximately 98 males for every 100 females in the population. Out of the total population, 28.3 percent are urban dwellers with the majority (71.7%) of the people residing in rural areas (www.statsghana.gov.gh).

The migrants who founded the Nanumba Kingdom were part of a movement which led to the creation of the Mamprusi, Dagomba and Mossi states. The Nanumba speaks Nanunli- a Gur language. Their language is called Nanunli which literally means the language of the Nanumba. According to Staniland (1975), the mythology of all the above-mentioned names refer to a common ancestor - Tohajee – the Red Hunter whose grandson, Gbewa settled at Pusiga near Bawku in north-east Ghana. According to

Staniland, these migrants originated from the Hausa state, probably Zamfara – who raided local communities in the Niger valley. Gbewa gave birth to seventeen children and was succeeded by Zirli the eldest son. During his reign, the other sons moved southwards. Tohagu founded the Mampurigu state, Sitobu founded the Dagomba state and Ngantambu founded the Nanumba state. The Mossi state of Ouagadougou was founded by an offspring of Yamture, the daughter of Gbewa. This explains why Dagban,

Nanun, Mampurugu are playmates of the member of Mossi because maternal cousins are traditionally playmates of paternal cousins (Haluway 2008).

Staniland (1975) indicated that Sitobu, the founder of Dagbon pointed his hand southwards and asked his brother, Ngantambu to follow the direction and settle there.

Those who made the movement became Nanumba which literally means people of the chief‘s hand (Na-nuu-ba). The place they settled became known as Bimbilla which means

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the few or small things. Nanun is inhabited by other ethnic groups such as the

Konkomba, the Nawuri, Kotokoli, Anufo. The land is one of the areas noted for its agricultural potential and food crops such as yam, maize, millet, rice, soya beans, beans, and groundnut are cultivated for market and also for household provisioning.

Farming is the main economic occupation of the area with the introduction of modern trades such as carpentry, masonry, vehicle repair etc. The people have taken advantage of them and many have combined farming with trade. This brought bitterness as they have to sometimes compete with the settler Konkomba for farmland leading thereby to skirmishes in the village. Many have attributed the Konkonba - Nanumba wars of 1981, 1994, and 1995 to farmland litigations. The rich commercial farmers, however, face the competition among themselves in order to get fertile lands for their crops.

3.3 Communal/Family Land Tenure Systems in Nanumba North District

According to Quisumbing et al., (2001) communal land tenure system may be conceptualized as a set of tenures rather than a single tenure type. Customary land tenure systems claim to draw their legitimacy from tradition and are held by ‗traditional‘ authorities such as chiefs/family or clan heads on behalf of the community. Under customary tenure, ownership and rights in land, and its resources are embedded in the fundamental concept of kinship relations (Trebilcock, 1984). Allocations of land are made based on one's relationship with the kin group or the custodians. The concept of customary land tenure is often complex with multiple and overlapping rights over the same resources held by different users at the same time or over a period. Under communal land tenure system, one person could have the right to cultivate crops; while

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on the same piece of land, another could have rights to trees. Or land could be used by crop cultivators during the cropping season and by herders during the off-season or fallow period.

The most dominant form of land tenure practice in the area is the family land tenure system, where members of the family have allegiance to the family head that exercises dominion over family land and allocates portions of these lands to the youth.

Most farmers acquire their farmlands through inheritance. The ownership of those farmlands by individual families ceases when the town develops to the area, then the community chief now takes control over the land and allocate it to interested members for building or commercial activities. As a resource belonging to the people of Nanun, land in Nanun is traditionally not for sale. This is the adage because the custodians and council of elders of the land hold it for the benefit of the people of their respective communities.

But now things are changing in most communities, especially in peri-urban and fast developing communities in Nanun. The council of elders and chiefs of the communities who are custodians of community lands now see land as their personal property which they divide into ―pillared‖ plots for lease without providing options of livelihood sources for other community members who depend on the land. This is common in peri-urban

Bimbilla where community people‘s farmlands are divided into plots by the custodians for lease to people with money to put up settlements.

The loss of farmlands by people in the peri-urban areas to developers or land speculators has impacted negatively on farmers, especially in Bimbilla. People who have lost their farmlands are forced to travel long distances to find farmlands and they have to

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commute daily to their farms. In some cases, these commuter-farmers seasonally migrate to other villages during the farming season and they only return home after harvest with their foodstuffs or only when it becomes necessary. The seasonal migrant farmers sometimes form new settlements altogether with their own leader(s). Their leaders represent them in matters concerning their welfare with the land-owning community.

They serve the interest of the settlers and as an agent of the custodian of the land and also take taxes and contributions on behalf of the custodian. In recent times, these farm settlements are not left out of the land lease problems faced by peri-urban dwellers.

People who have migrated to settle in remote areas are now facing the challenge of their farmlands being leased out to local commercial farmers by community chiefs to undertake large-scale commercial farming. But the opportunities that arise are that farmers find new lands, locate near the lands and thus concentrate on their farm work.

3.4 Mechanization of Agriculture and Agricultural Production in Nanun

Agricultural mechanization in most African countries from the colonial period to independence favored mostly the large-scale producer to the neglect of the smallholder farmers. In Ghana, for instance, the various developmental plans from colonial period favored the production of tree crops for export and later encouraged the development and production of large-scale mechanization scheme in the country which was often affected by other factors. Also in Ghana, increased public investment in agricultural production was however not to improve or transform peasant production but rather to establish large scale mechanized state farms in the early 1960s. Both the colonial and post-colonial government officials considered the small scale farmers as being not only incapable but also unwilling to increase production to external demand of southern urban consumers 36

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(Koning, 1986). So the land rush is to a large extent the story of a restructuring of the rural food and agriculture system in ways that favour large over small-scale farming.

Houssou et al., (2014) conducted a survey in the Northern region where tractor services have been adopted more widely than in the South. The findings indicated that

77% of interviewed farmers reported the use of tractor services for plowing. The 2010 survey conducted by IFPRI’s Ghana Strategy Support Program in four districts of the three northern regions indicates that about 95% of 173 interviewed maize farmers used hired tractor services for land preparation (Akramov and Malek, 2012). Large scale farmers are often the first-adopters of mechanization as profitability is possible for them based on preparing their own large land area (Binswanger, 1986). The incentive for medium-scale farmers to invest in machinery is less if it is only used for their own farm.

The degree of agriculture development in Nanun is influenced by social, technical and political factors directed by state policies. The establishment of State Farms in Yendi and Brigade camp in Bimbilla in the 1960s introduced the use of heavy equipment‘s such as tractors and combine harvesters in farming to facilitate production but at the same time drew the labour force from surrounding communities to work on those plantations. The intention was to create mass employment for rural people and crops cultivated were maize, yam, guinea corn, millet, and cashew. The farmland was given free of charge to the leaders of workers brigade, but compensation was paid for shea and dawadawa trees for binding women from picking those fruits. The area covered by the Brigade camp extended from ‗Wampum to Kpagturi‘ area and covered a total land area of approximately 2000 hectares. The first Workers Brigade camp to be established in the

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north was in Damongo, and the Brigade camp in Bimbilla was established around 1962 onwards. The Workers Brigade officials annually sent food stuff after harvesting to the chief‘s palace in a form of tribute and also to show recognition. The workers brigade ceased operations in 1979 but they are some traces of cashew trees in those farms that belong to the camp.

The Brigade Camps in Bimbilla brought together workers from all the surrounding areas to work on the farms for wages that resulted in families losing their family labour and at the same time it increased the desire of the youth to acquire fiscal cash. The Brigade camps were earmarked as government lands. So when the Bimbilla town was expanding people were initially afraid to go for those farmlands for residential shelters. The reverse of Brigade camps to traditional authorities was a national policy which was implemented in 1979 and given direction for all government lands to be returned to original owners. After reversing the government compulsory acquired lands to the chiefs, the land was then reallocated to members for building and for farming. Those farmlands were later abandoned after the 1980s and have since been turned into residential homes referred to as Masaka but at the same time, some distant portions of those lands have been appropriated by individuals for cashew nut plantations.

The era of the Brigade camp marked the usage of farm tractors by a relatively few wealthy indigenous farmers at the time. The recent introduction of Agriculture

Mechanization Service Enterprise Centers (AMSEC) to boost mechanization of the agricultural sector in 2009 by the Government of Ghana paved the way for the establishment of two AMSEC centers in Nanumba North namely ‗Global Al- Mas limited

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and Kurkurdama Enterprise‘. The commercial farmers in Northern Ghana took advantage of the policies instituted to benefit the mechanization of the agriculture in Ghana but smallholders benefited very little from these policies. The AMSEC centers were all supposed to provide cheap ploughing services to poor farmers but these tractors according to interaction with the people did not last for even a year and almost all were no longer functioning.

Mechanization is gaining grounds in the area but its use is limited to just ploughing and does not include the other services such as weeding in farms, spraying of weeds, hence leaving other sectors of agriculture out for farmers to adopt their own ways of reducing cost of labour resulting in the use of herbicide to control or clear farms for sowing. Farmers respond to improvements in incentives and market conditions by changing production practices and investing in new technologies, including mechanical technologies. Broad-based rural infrastructure development also reduces the costs to commercial farmers who supply technology and inputs as well as markets.

3.5 Agricultural production and markets in the area

Agriculture production within the Nanumba traditional area is carried out by different tribes, but it is largely dominated by both Konkomba‘s and Nanumbas‘. There exist a number of different types of farmland known by the crops and the type of agriculture worked on them. Backyard plots are seasonally used to cultivate pepper, guinea-corn, soya beans, okra, and sorghum. The people allow no land to go uncultivated and village boundaries will extend as far as the closest field of the neighboring village.

Only the rocky areas are usually left uncultivated. The economic life of the Nanumbas is

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determined by the cycles imposed upon them by the radical changes that the West

African guinea savannah goes through during the course of a year. Especially during the months of July, August and September, the basin/drainage area of the Oti River is almost completely flooded resulting in washing away most soils and the land as well as crops are the primary interest of both the settler groups and the indigenes. Interestingly, harvested foods or food stuff is sent to the major markets for sale especially by the Konkomba youth and women. It was through this kind of informal markets that opened the doors to the Konkombas to seize the production of yam and intensified it by establishing a yam market in Accra dubbed as the Konkomba Yam Market at Agbogbloshie (Dawson 2000).

In Ghana, the rise of the Konkomba yam markets in the south was crucial in bringing to the fore those aspects of Konkomba identity which had been somewhat suppressed by the Nanumba domination, but which had driven the Konkomba to resist the imposition of territorial leadership from Nalerigu, Yendi, and Bimbilla. The yam market in Accra, in many, ways represents all of the factors that have merged to comprise

Konkomba ethnicity and self-identity. Through the income that the market generates, the

Konkomba have become a powerful economic force in Ghana's agricultural economy and are no longer kept in near destitution by the tribute imposed upon them in the past by their neighbor‘s. The Dagomba, Marnprusi, and Nanumba now regularly rely upon the

Konkomba to supplement the produce of their field‘s, however, the Konkomba now exact a heavy price for the goods they sell to their one time overlords (Dawson 2000).

Women in the district also engage in the marketing of the foodstuffs and cereals produced by the farmers. Most of the food stuff and cereals which are produced in the

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various villages are sent to the market centers by the women for sale. Some of the market centers in the district are (Bimbilla, Chamba, Damanku, makayili, Nakpayili, Dokpam,

Taale, Bincheratanga and Wulehi). There are also markets at Lungni, Kumindi, and

Kpandai. One of the major problems facing the marketing of farm produce is the bad nature of the roads in the district. Most of the roads linking the various communities are feeder roads which become very deplorable during the rainy season and this makes farm produce to get stacked on farms and the villages and not being able to get to marketing centers. Recently, some financial institutions such as SNAPI ABA and Premium Fruits in

Kumasi and Techiman have networked with some of the commercial farmers through

‗ADVANCE‘ where they normally pre-finance the farmers and after harvesting the farm produce then it is bought in bulk. In fact, most of the local market women sometimes also give money to farmers during the farming period and collect back the money equivalents when foods are harvested.

3.6 Relations between indigenes and settler groups

Farming is the main economic occupation of the area with the introduction of modern trades such as carpentry, masonry, vehicle repair etc. the people took advantage of that and many have combined farming with trade. This brought bitterness as they have to sometimes compete with the settler groups such as the Konkonba for farmland leading thereby to skirmishes in the villages. Many have attributed the Konkonba - Nanumba wars of 1981, 1994, and 1995 to farmlands litigation. Some of the farmers in Bimbilla town, on one hand,, do not face this problem of land competition as their farmlands are farther away from town. The Konkomba communities are far from the town and are often

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characterized by vast expanse of farmlands. The rich commercial farmers, however,, face the competition among themselves in order to get fertile lands for their crops.

The relationship between Konkombas and their Nanumba counterparts dates back to the 1940s when Konkombas first arrived on Nanumba land. There were accepted by

Nanumbas and were made to help in their farm work and portions were allocated to them to feed their families. This kind of informal arrangement persisted for years until in 1981, when it changed and eventually sparked the first Konkomba and Nanumba conflict. The

Chief of Vo-Naa (Reagent- Naa Abarika Atta) narrated that;

“A Konkomba man and the paramount chief of the Nanun traditional area at the time

(Naa Dasana) had a quarrel over one lady and the Konkomba man cutlass the son of the

paramount chief. The secretary of the chief was sent to find out from the Konkombas

what had happened and he was killed and this sparked the 1981 Konkomba/Nanumba

war” (Chief Vonaa). More so “Nanumbas were not doing their work as directed by the

chiefs and were pushing everything on Konkombas. So they felt ill-treated and were

looking for an opportunity to register their grievances. The dispute between the

paramount chief’s son and the Konkomba man resulted in the Nanumba and Konkomba

conflict” (Vo-Naa-Reagent of Naa Abarika Atta).

Brukum (2001) also observed that the main source of Konkomba discontent with their Nanumba landlords originate from they being compelled to offer a week free labour a year on the farm of Nanun chiefs. Also, in accordance with another Nanun tradition konkombas were compelled to donate a hind leg of any big animal whether wild or domesticated to Nanun chiefs. Tributes in the form of foodstuffs and livestock were also collected from Konkomba tenants. These tributes were not peculiar to only Konkombas 42

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but all setter groups who had settled on other people land honored that obligation. This control over Konkombas faded with the formation of ‗Konkomba Youth Association‘ in the early 1970s to eradicate what was referred as obsolete customs and to project

Konkomba culture through education and to elect a leader to adjudicate petty problems among themselves. The implementation of this decision led to a war between Konkombas and Nanumbas in 1980. As a consequence labour services are no longer provided in a form of tribute and paying of royalties but occur in informal markets with hiring of labour services to indigenes and vis-versa

Aapengnuo (2008) conducted research in the area and noted that the administration of lands (Amendment) Decree, 1979 (AFRCD 61) vested all northern lands under the authority of the chiefs. It was the land tenure act that favored Northern chiefs, but at the same time, it became a setback for the non-centralized societies of the region that had benefited during the post-colonial years from the dwindling authority of the chiefs. Consequently, the chiefs‘ traditional jurisdictions were upheld as the government relied on the boundaries the British established between each centralized polity. Therefore the land historically occupied by groups lacking an officially recognized chief became part of the domain of neighboring chiefs. Therefore, Bimbilla Naa formally started exercising authority over people that had migrated to the area. Aapengnuo further indicated that, by 1980 ―the Konkombas, represented as much as two-thirds of Bimbilla‘s population of 125,000‖ (Skalnik 1983). The land tenure act vested unwavering powers of exercising control over land in the hands of the four chiefly tribes (Dagombas,

Nanumbas, Mamprusi, and Gonjas) in northern Ghana. As a consequent, the majority of the violent conflicts in northern Ghana took place after 1979. This shows that the 43

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conflicts were not only identity conflicts but also interest-based conflicts which were constructed to protect these interests. Aapengnuo, recorded this information in an interview with some Nanumbas where they asserted that:

―Predominantly, their main source of livelihood is agriculture which they cherish so

much and very sensitive to issues bordering on our land and geographical

boundaries...Land is one of the most important and closely guided resources of the

Nanumbas. Since our mainstay is agriculture, our survival depends on the preservation of

this important resource. We practice rotational farming and so we need ample land to

farm. Because our land is rich, we like to farm on virgin land and land is free‖

(Aapengnuo, 2008; 85).

This notion of farming on virgin lands has now become a thing of the past as lands have become scarce and shifting cultivation is no longer practiced since they are no fallow lands. The activities of commercial farming lead to a situation where few people appropriate large areas of farmlands, resulting in scarcity of land. Improvement in technology has resulted in an increase in farm size by individual commercial farmers which has made land to be scarcer but not due to increase in population since the area is characterized by low population density. Conflict of interest over the ownership and use of the common resource further led to misunderstanding attitudes among the indigenes and settler groups. It is significant to mention that virgin lands are still available but the resources needed to develop these fields is difficult a task to manage and this ultimately pressurizes the few existing developed fields for farmers in most local communities. In a separate interaction, the Konkombas also hold a strong view that land is in abundance

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and no single tribe can claim ownership and therefore indicated to Aapengnuo (2008) that;

―We believe land is there for us to till and to farm to make a living and we also believe

that since time immemorial, which we cannot place a definite date on, the area around

yendi, known as the eastern dagomba belong to the Konkonbas. Dagombas came and met

us and a number of writers have attested to that. To us as long as we are allowed to work

on the land without any hindrance, it does not really matter who says he is the owner. A

Konkomba man is a farmer and so fertile land is important to him. They migrate to other

places in search of land. Wherever they go they have problems. They are accused of not

being indigenous and so are often levied heavily. We do not have chieftaincy so when we

settle, Nanumbas enskin chiefs for us and want us to pay allegiance to the chief and this

brings problems‖ Aapengnuo (2008; 85).

3.7 Role of chiefs in land tenure and distribution in Nanumba North District

Nanumba land is for Bimbilla chief who administers this land through his sub- chiefs and linguist as well as his children. There are villages and each village has a chief.

Land in Nanun is not for sale as majority of the farmers interviewed hold a view which corroborates with Aapengnuo (2008) interaction with some Konkombas who asserts that;

We value land and we think that nobody has paid for land. We want land purely

for farming activities and we do not intend to buy or sell land to anybody and we

believe that, if somebody wants land for farming, no matter the sizes, he should be

given free of charge, don’t take anything.

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Farming goes on in the area in such a way that if you want land to farm, it can be gotten through a native in consultation with family heads or land owners. In the past any stranger who acquired land for farming or building, when that individual is to leave the community then he/she returns the land to the chief or landowner from whom the land was acquired. The king of Nanung and his sub-chiefs are the custodians of the Nanumba land. Land is closely linked with chieftaincy, the role of the Nanumba chief when

―enskined‖ by the king is to see to it that the wellbeing of his subjects and the land is secured. The sub-chiefs account to the paramount chief by informing him on the issues emerging in their localities and how those issues are being resolved. If you are a stranger and want to settle in a particular community then you need to see the chief who then listens to you through his representatives.

Mostly, a native will lead you to meet an elderly person who in turn takes you to the chief palace for you to declare your intention for coming into that community- whether to settle or do business. As chiefs takes ultimate responsibility for any good or misfortunes under their ruling, he then directs one of his linguists to check through soothsayers whether the person is a good person or bad person and the kind of fortune the person is bringing to the community. If the findings are good then you readily accept the person and give them land to settle. The inability of any chief to have full knowledge and control of issues happening in their respective jurisdictions could result in the chief losing respect among his subjects.

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3.8 Changes in cropping system in Nanumba North District

Agriculture is the main occupation of the people in the Nanumba North District.

They engage in the production of all kinds of food crops for house consumption and also to supplement household income. Yam is the original staple crop in the area grown largely for household consumption but also for markets. In recent years cassava has also become important in household provisioning. In recent time rice and maize have increasingly become important as commercial crops and are displacing yam.

In the past, in preparing land for yam cultivation, farmers used to engage people to remove the grasses and trees (fana-pahibu) between August-October. Yam is cultivated on either kasokurli (old land- compose of small trees and a tractor can plough the field) or

Garigu (virgin land) – a deep forest that has a lot of trees and a tractor cannot plough.

The next stage of preparing land is to burn portions of the field and start raising yam mounds in November. The biggest trees are latter prune to eliminate insects and to give some amount of sunshine. These pruning of trees is to prevent jalinbohu (a destructive insect) that normally emerges from excretes of cattle to pears through the yam mounds thereby destroying the yam. Also, the pruned trees are later used as supporting sticks to the yam mounds known as nyusahu. The various varieties of yam cultivated in the area include; kpeno, laabako, sheni, tchentchoto, fuara, nawohu, kpayohi. An acre can yield more than one thousand (1,000) yam mounds and the by day workers farm for a pay on a daily basis. The raising of a hundred yam mounds used to cost two cedis (2 cedis) and now the cost is five cedi.

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When yams mature the harvesting is done manually by hand using cutlass to dig and cover the vine. The yields depend on the time for cutting the yam sets especially if it matures. Farmer‘s inability to get good and matured people during planting affects the yield. More so, the weather pattern can favor some farmers depending on the quantity of water received in their farms. As a result of improvement in technology and mechanization of agriculture, the farming systems have changed. Farmers no longer engaged in fana pahibu but rather use chemicals to spray the farm to kill the grass before raising yam mounds. After planting the yam surds, the whole farm is sprayed after one week to control weeds from appearing on the field. This is a complete departure from the old method of farming yam, though the entire process of yam cultivation has not been fully mechanized because – digging, stacking, covering of the vine and mounding are still being done manually.

Maize is also cultivated on either upland plots Kukou or baapimpina – where the maize is cultivated very early to support the family. This maize which is normally planted at baapimpina has duration of three months – so that it matures early before the valleys get flooded. The upland plots are planted in June. Varieties of maize include; obaapanta, akumasa, Panaa and all these varieties are planted on either upland or valley land.

Akumasa and Panaa are all long varieties and their drought resistant. In the past land preparation for maize production was done by using hoe and cutlass which later change to the use of bullocks and tractors. Now land preparation is done using chemicals to spray the field since their old lands and later use tractor to plough. After planting, the field is sprayed to prevent weeds from appearing. This simple method of land preparation enables farmers to cultivate large acres of farmland since they do not need more physical 48

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labour to bring the weeds under control. This act favors few with sufficient capital who control large portions of family land to the disadvantage of other family members leading to land scarcity among families and hence displacement of less-privileged farmers. This trend of appropriation affects land holdings of farmers as has been illustrated in the above discussions.

Rice production occurs mainly in valley lands called baa, which are water lock areas. Initially, the production of rice used to be done on zero tillage and with the use of simple farming equipments like hoe and cutlass. This method of farming required the breaking of the top soil to loosen it for the planting of rice and this limited the number of acres farmers could cultivate since it involved the use of manual labour. This has fundamentally changed due to mechanization of the agriculture sector and farmers are able to plough large acres of farmland by using tractors and harrow to work on the field.

The commercial farmers used combined harvester‘s to harvest rice and also used it to do threshing which eliminates the manual system. These changes that have occurred in the cropping systems favor some new crops over and above others.

3.9 Impact of agricultural commercialization on labour markets

In the past, Nanumba landlords controlled land which was farm by subjugated groups such as (Konkomba, Chekose, Nawuri, etc) who provided labour services in exchange for land (Brukum 1998). After the Konkomba - Nanumba conflict in 1994/5, this has changed - labour markets are no longer provided as tributes but occur within an internal market. Similarly, youth no longer provide labour services for their in-laws and family elders but farm independently and hire out their labour. This is reflected in an

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interview with 42-year-old man - Mr. Wumbei – an agronomist and a commercial farmer who indicated that;

The practices of buying farmlands have not been made open in this area.

Inhabitants used to declare three days to farm for the chief at the various stages of

the farming process. Chiefs have always been the custodians of the land and are

entrusted with its allocation rights. All inhabitants including indigenes and

subjugated tribes used to pay tribute to the chief up till the 1990s when it changed.

Nobody pays a Kobo for obtaining farmland but now farming has become much

easier due to the availability of labour rendered by both students and community

members to people who seek for those services.

It was the less privileged people and strangers who used to farm for the chief and as well send some farm produce to the chief palace every year to take care of his family and partly to show appreciation to the landowners. Farmland was not sold because it was assumed that every community was made up of the same people and this kind gesture continued even when strangers started joining the communities. So it was deemed not appropriate to sell farmland to a relative or a close friend. Every stranger enters a community through a native and expresses interest to stay in that community. Times have changed and love for money has dominated all activities in communities and people no longer give attention to loyalty. To this end, labour services are no longer provided as an obligation but now occur within a market in which labour replacing technology such as ploughing services and combined harvesters can be transacted for land. Many

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commercial farmers gained access to land by providing ploughing services to land owners.

A prerequisite for investment in land is the availability of labour. To examine the emergence of land markets in relation to labour in this research is a necessary priority.

Without labour, they cannot be any land markets. Processes of social differentiation among the peasantry in rural communities (in which poorer households supplement agriculture with hiring out labour). This was illustrated by Tahidu Adam, a 32 year old teacher who recently started farming five years ago and indicated that;

We contact groups or individuals in the town who are known for doing ‗by-day-

work‘. Some people have taken it up as their work and they are from amongst the

community. Other laborers also come from different towns and villages who need

money to solve family problems and we engage their services. The school

children are also another source of labour we frequently use during weekends.

Now family labour has declined as farmers hire their services based on negotiations. The issue of autochthons and indigenes based on payment of tribute has been reversed. The migrant youth composing largely of Konkombas now possess some farm land and usually release some to Nanumbas to farm based on informal negotiations of rendering ploughing services and farm maintenance. In an interview with Alhassan

Mubarik, a 25-year-old boy who serves as a labourer in Lepusi, and normally work for most of the farmers indicated that;

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I do by day work for a living in this community. I work for both my family

members and outsiders who seek for my services. The farmers themselves often

time approach me to inform me about their work and we sometimes work as a

group. The kind of work we do for farmers includes weeding, planting,

broadcasting, spraying and removing of bad weeds on their rice fields and

harvesting of maize. Each person takes 7 cedis a day for planting (sowing of

maize) and those who do dibbing take 9 cedis a day. As for weeding they measure

sections for us to weed and the measurement is usually 20 by 20 and we charge 8

cedi. When the farm is big, we can bargain for the whole farm and use either a

week or two to finish the work. When we raise yam mounds, we charge 5 cedis

per every 100 mounds and during harvest time for maize we follow farmers to bag

the maize and charge 1 cedi per bag.

The consequences of the development of these informal labour markets have polarized the family labour relations and rather inure to the benefit of commercial farmers who hire the services of these labourers and the remunerations are often very poor as evidenced by the interview with the labourers. The resultant effects are that commoditization of land inevitably works to the disadvantage of those with lower purchasing power, thus threatening reduced access to land and potentially further impoverishment for the poorer among existing land users.

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Figure 3.1 A Map of Nanumba North District showing the farming communities

Source: (GSS 2010)

From the district map above, Bimbilla which is the district capital harbors the commercial farmers who in turn move out to farm in the adjoining communities such as

Chamba, Dakpem, Bangdiyili, Chichehi, Lepusi, Kpagturi, Jua, Sangnayili etc. The district capital also serves as transactional grounds for the farmers where food crops are brought to the market.

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3.10 Conclusion

The background characteristics of the people clearly show the intensification of agricultural production in the area and to which extent relations between indigenes and settler groups are linked to access and control of land. The role of chiefs in land tenure relations is strictly limited to the control of building plots and not farmlands since the predominant tenure relations in the area is the family land system where family heads exercise control over family lands. The changing labour relations in which tributes are no longer paid to indigenes but instead occur through informal processes of labour exchange and hiring out of labour services. The extent to which this has resulted in changes in agricultural activities and its impact on land and labour relations will be discussed in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER FOUR

IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL COMMERCIALIZATION ON LAND AND

LABOUR IN NANUMBA NORTH DISTRICT

4.1 Introduction

In this research, sixty farmers were interviewed in total and this comprised of twenty commercial farmers, fifteen women, and ten labourers as well as fifteen small- scale farmers. Commercial farmers are people who engage in production for market and for profit through investment in capital for labour, inputs, fertilizer or through accumulation from below (within agriculture) or accumulation from above (outside agriculture). The extent of scale or intensification of production of food crops by individual farmers shows their categories and differentiation in rural communities.

Appropriation of agricultural land can occur through accumulation from below, by investments of smallholder farmers within a process of investing farm profits in further expansion of farming activities. It can also occur from above, by investments of other actors who have accumulated capital outside of agriculture into agriculture, which they see as a profitable venture. These include traders, other entrepreneurs, salaried workers, bureaucrats, and politicians who appropriate and acquire farmland.

However, acquisition of land does not necessarily occur through structured land markets. It can also occur through rental markets, neo-customary and informal mechanisms based on notions of a moral economy rooted in reciprocity, obligations, exchange of services and gifts, and debt. Therefore it is important to examine transactions in land outside specific notions of land markets and examine how land is transacted and 55

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negotiated as part of a process of agricultural commercialization within general transactions.

In this chapter, it is argued that in the Nanumba North district, the main source of accumulation within agriculture occurs from investments of traders, civil servants, bureaucrats who use their savings to gain access to farmlands. The rise of land transactions is related to the large local demand for tractor services and the scarcity of existing tractors. As a result of this scarcity many smallholders fail to secure tractor ploughing before the onsets of the rainy season. The main commercial farmers invest in tractor services, which they hire out to local farmers in a number of different types of transactions. One of the most significant transactions for local farmers and landowners occurs as the provision of tractor services in exchange for land. The main commercial farmers are from Bimbilla, the district capital, and take advantage of the lack of tractor services to insist in payment in kind, which includes both crops and land. Frequently farmers cannot afford to pay in cash and the tractor operators take payment in crop after the harvest season. Currently, the tractor owners take one maxi bag of maize or rice.

However, when the harvest fails and the farmers are unable to pay, the tractor operators have to make payment in land. Some tractor operators prefer to seek payment in crops rather than cash and others prefer land. As a consequence, land is being transferred and transacted outside of formal land markets. The commercial farmers in most cases are unlikely to lose since farmers will be forced to provide what is due them in any way possible. But in many instances, farmers are willing to release land to tractor

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owners to gain access to ploughing services. Ploughing services are considered scarcer than land. The degree of scarcity of tractor services is illustrated in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Acreages cultivated by tractor owners and hirers of tractor services

Type of ploughing Median Mean Minimum no. Maximum Total no. of

acreage acreage of acreages no. of farmers

cultivated cultivated cultivated acreages

cultivated

Tractor owners 41.00 63.10 8 210 20

Tractor hirers 14.00 24.2 3 170 37

Manual ploughing 21.50 40.67 19 52 3

Source: 2016 Field Work

From table 4.1, the mean acres for farmers who own tractors is 63 and the minimum number of acres put under cultivation is 8 acres, whilst the maximum number of acres cultivated by tractor owners is 210. The mean acres for farmers who hire tractors are 24, and the minimum number cultivated is 3 acres with the maximum number cultivated by tractor is 170 acres. The total acreage cultivated by 20 farmers who own tractors is 1262, whilst 37 farmers who hire tractor services had a total acreage of 896.

This means that tractor owners cultivate significantly larger acreage of farmland than those who hire tractor services. Those who engage in manual ploughing are a residual category and no significant conclusions can be drawn from them since they consist of only 3 farmers. This implies that there is no level playing field in land transactions and arrangements between tractor owners and those who hire tractor services and this could 57

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further exacerbate inequalities and social differentiation between land owners and commercial farmers.

The study revealed that most people are converting their assets to hire land as can be seen in table 4.2. Thirty-seven of the farmers hired tractor services out of which nine farmers representing 24% got their land by providing ploughing services to land owners.

This implies that the land owners do not have the capital to hire tractors or they do not have the connections or network with tractor drivers. It means there is more demand for land ploughing in exchange of land by land owners. Also, 17 of the respondents representing 46% equally engage in hiring of tractor services and got their land through inheritance. This further implies that tractors are so scarce and land owners cannot find sufficient tractor operators to plough their land for them that they give out land to those who are able to hire tractor services in exchange for a number of acreages of land ploughed. These pressures that the deals create on local land relations are shaped not only by the aggregate land area acquired, but also by the quality and location of that land.

Those who acquire land through gift and forest department are insignificant and will not make for any meaningful analysis.

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Table 4.2 Nature of land acquisition by tractor owners and tractor hirers

Means of land Tractor owner Hire tractor Manual Total acquisition services ploughing

Through 8 17 1 26 inheritance (40.0%) (45.9%) (33.3%) (43.3%)

Through the 2 4 1 7 chief (10.0%) (10.8%) (33.3%) (11.7%)

In exchange for 7 9 1 17 ploughing (35%) (24.3%) (33.3%) (28.3%)

Through gift 2 4 0 6 (10.0%) (10.8%) (0.0%)

(10.0%)

Through the 1 3 0 4 forest (5.0%) (8.1%) (0.0%) (6.7%) department

Total 20 37 3 60

(100)

Source: 2016 Field Work

From figure 4.1, ninety-five percent of the farmers interviewed used tractor ploughing services and only five percent used manual ploughing. Of the ninety-five percent of farmers who used tractor ploughing, thirty-three percent own tractors and the

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remaining sixty-seven percent hire tractor services. The tractor owners would first of all want to plough their own farms which are not small acres of land. This leads to excessive demand for tractor services due to limited number of tractors that pushes the cost of ploughing up and for which reason farmers are usually not able to afford the cash payments but instead resort to ploughing either on credit or to be paid an equivalent amount of maize or rice after harvesting. In some cases, other farmers release some portions of their land to tractor owners in other to get their fields ploughed for them on time. A relatively small number of farmers still resort to manual farming by the use of hoe and cutlass to till the soil. The numbers of farmers who own tractors and were from

Bimbilla were about 15 people representing 71% of tractor owners in the study area as compared to the remaining 29% percent farmers who heal from other villages. In Chamba only two tractors are operating and both are owned by commercial farmers.

Figure 4.1: A chart showing the usage of farm machinery

1. Tractor Owner 2. Hirers of tractor services

3. Manual Ploughing

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4.2 Perception of farmers on commercial farming activities

The informal arrangement that exist between farmers and commercial farmers resulting in the provision of ploughing services for landowners in the form of reciprocity inure to the benefit of commercial farmers but often disadvantage a greater number of small scale farmers who engage in those transactions. Most farmers feel that it is the commercial farmers who continue to benefit as they get land and labour from the community and in the end they are only given a small portion of what they harvest. After releasing the land for commercial farmers, they often plough an insignificant number of acres for landowners with the highest ranging between 3 and 5 acres. The kind of arrangements between landowners and commercial farmers are not fixed and very informal that could lead to the withdrawal of the offer made. Commercial farmers are obliged to renew their informal agreements by visiting the farming community before the beginning of the season to serve as a reminder to the land owner.

There were instances where farmers narrated that, some of the commercial farmers are greedy and when you give them the land to plough, they plough just some few acres for you and forget of the commitment and the loyalty. They will over plough the initial size or acres agreed upon and when it gets to that point land owners also take drastic measures by releasing the land to a different farmer without the farmer‘s knowledge. In an interview with Mananu Alabire who heals from a family that has plenty farmlands in Bangdiyili noted;

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“When the commercial farmers come to take the land to farm, we normally give them the

land to plough depending on the number of acres requested by the commercial farmer

without putting any charge across. The landowners do not have to mention in plain terms

what is required from the commercial farmers. They normally allow the commercial

farmers to use their own discretion to plough a number of acres for the land owner and

during farm maintenance, they provide us with farm inputs like fertilizer and herbicides.

If it happens the landowner is not able to get any good yield from the field, it will be

reasonable for the commercial farmer to give some number of bags to the land owner.

Those who normally forget of how they gained access to the field and treat landowners

anyhow risk losing the farmland the following season. For instance, this year a certain

commercial farmer has been denied access to the farmland and it is given to someone

else because he no longer recognizes the owners of the land. When harvested the

foodstuff, he failed to give the land owners and even elders in the community”.

In some instances some farmers narrated that, during the ploughing season they are made to buy a gallon of diesel at the cost of 10 cedi per acre. After harvesting their food crops they still had to pay one bag per acre if maize or two bags of rice to the tractor owner. The cost of ploughing is sixty cedi per acre at the beginning of the season and the price of a bag of maize is ninety at the time of harvesting. This implies that farmers are at a disadvantage position in engaging in th kind of negotiations and it is they the farmers who lose not only the farmland but their labour as well. This further implies that those arrangements are actually leading to exploitation of the already impoverished farmers who spend not only on ploughing services at a higher cost but also spend a considerable amount of money on herbicides, labour, fertilizer which reduces their return on investments. 62

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The farmers also know that without the services of these commercial farmers farming could be too difficult to pursue as a venture since farming has now become capital intensive and those with financial capital are able to meet the needed targets by practicing the right farming methods. The farmers also believe that getting farmland in the area is becoming difficult due to the expansion of commercial farms. Approximately

90% of the respondents lamented that it is becoming difficult to acquire farmland or get access to farmland in the area due to the activities of commercial farmers who end up ploughing more than 10 to 50 acres of land in their localities which leaves relatively small portions available for the majority of farmers. In an interview with Alhassan

Fuseini, a 39-year-old teacher, he indicated that:

Ever since I was young I used to follow my parents to work on their farms but

never was I allowed owning a farm until when I became a teacher in the year

2000. Commercial farming is affecting our access to farmland because people are

not ready to develop the virgin lands. They all want to have access to an already

developed field which is causing problems for us. More so people have realized

that farming has become lucrative and most government workers are now entering

into farming and the lands they want to acquire are large acres of farmland which

is putting pressure on land owners.

4.3 Access to farmland in Nanun

Anybody who wants land either for building or farming needs to get in touch with an indigene. The person takes the seeker of land to the chief palace with cola to seek the blessings of the skin. There are varied ways of negotiating access to farmland and there is

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no proper laid down procedure since the dominant land tenure system in the area is a family land where people acquire farmland through inheritance. Apart from building plots that are under the jurisdiction of the chief all other plots especially farmlands are controlled and managed by individuals and families who have rights to those lands. As noted by Dawson (2000) and Aapengnuo (2008) , farmlands in the area is not for sale but people who want to have access to any farmland does that through negotiation either with landowners or through a community chief if the person has abundant farmlands in the area. They mentioned that farmlands are not sold because it was assumed that people in the communities were related in one way or the other and thus not appropriate to sell farmland to a relative or a close friend. In an interview with Vo-Naa (Reagent of Naa

Abarika), he indicated that:

Farmlands are not for sale. Nanumba land is controlled by Bimbilla Chief and he

exercises control over the land through sub-chiefs and linguist as well as his

children, there are villages and every village has a chief. In Nanun, land tenure

system exists and there are two categories of tenure relations namely leasing and

gift. The leasing of land is a new form of arrangement, which is alien to the

traditional practices in the area. In time past, when you were given land for

farming or building and you want to leave the place you simply give it back to the

chief of that community. Chiefs who have no knowledge of what is happening in

their communities will always have challenges with their respective areas and a

possible calamity could occur in the area. An example of a calamity could be

youth leaving your town to seek refuge elsewhere, a lot of things would go bad

and this could lead to low productivity. 64

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Again, he made mentioned that modernity has reduced the powers of chiefs in various localities and their authority is now limited to four corners of the courtroom and chiefs are no longer respected by the masses. For instance:

“If a chief wants to use part of his land for development and a stranger or native

already have acquired that parcel of land through someone, it could end up in

court. The judge presiding over the matter has inadequate knowledge of the

traditional practices of the area and may rule against the chief. It could also

happen the judge has no respect for chieftaincy in his area. So if the courts could

give a listening ear to chiefs and work closely with them it could help reduce the

quarrels and conflicts in most communities” (Vo-Naa-Reagent of Naa Abarika Atta)

However, due to transformations in land transactions and processes of acquiring farmlands, the desire for money has dominated all activities in communities where individuals have devised other means of acquiring these lands without necessarily exchanging fiscal cash but instead those arrangements are closely associated with payments. Some farmers contact land owners and make it open to them that when given access to the field, they will provide them with herbicides and fertilizer. The motive behind investing in farmland is to make profit. Most emergent commercial farmers normally do a careful study of the farming system to determine the crops that gives more yields and the associated market for those crops. Most of the farmers interviewed indicated that they prefer growing maize and rice because a lot of people consume those staples and it is easy to farm the two crops since it takes a maximum of three months to get matured. Rice is rated to give higher yield than maize. The farmers then use their

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tractor services (as bargaining chips) to exchange for not only farmland but for the best and fertile lands. They also look for valley lands that have already been developed and take advantage of those fields. Farming has become expensive in the area and those with access to capital gain access to land more easily.

As illustrated in Figure 4.2, the majority of the farmers (43%) get their farmlands through inheritance, since most of the farmlands are claimed to belong to families and not traditional heads. A small proportion of farmers (11%) get their land through the chief and their linguist (11%). Those that appropriated land through gift and the forest department were also low representing 10% and 7% respectively. A common mode of land acquisition in the area which is dominated by people who have money and those who possess capital (tractors and combined harvesters) provide ploughing services to farmers/land owners in exchange for land. The Forest Department releases land within forest reserves to farmers on the taungya system or basis in which lands are released to farmers for three years to cultivate yams provided they plant timber species within the fields. This strategy is used by the forest department to increase afforestation but is also a disincentive to the farmers since after developing the fields they do not have continues access to the field after three years and often allocated different plots.

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Figure 4.2: A chart illustrating forms of land acquisition

Source: 2016 Field Work

The nature of farming activities in the area normally occur outside the district capital and to an extent, most of the farmers reside in Bimbilla and seek farmlands in the adjourning villages to cultivate food crops. The cultivation of food crops varies from one location to the other depending on the traditional knowledge of the environment and what specific crops does well in those areas. Most of these new entrants into the farming

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occupation in the area usually do a careful study of the crop pattern before maneuvering into farming. As shown in Table 4.3, the majorities of the farmers reside or originate from Bimbilla but take advantage of the fields in the villages to engage in large-scale commercial farming. Out of the 60 respondents, 23 of the farmers hailed from Bimbilla representing 38 percent. The second largest community where the respondents came from is Lepusi representing 18 percent. Nakpayili and Wulensi all had 3 respondents each, representing 5 percent which is residual and will not make any meaningful analysis.

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Table 4.3 The origins of farmers

Town Name Frequency Percent Bangdiyili 1 1.7 Bimbilla 23 38.0 Bincheratanga 2 3.4 Chamba 1 1.7 Dokpam 1 1.7 Glisiya 1 1.7 Gundoo 1 1.7 Jua 1 1.7 Keta Krachi 1 1.7 Lepusi 11 18.3 Makayili 2 3.4 Nakpa 1 1.7 Nakpali 1 1.7 Nakpayili 3 5.0 Opidjua 1 1.7 Puduya 1 1.7 Pusiga 2 3.3 Saboba 1 1.7 Tong 1 1.7 Vitim-Tamale 1 1.7 Wulensi 3 5.0 Total 60 100.0 Source: 2016 Field Work

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While land consolidation by a relatively elite minority is not a new phenomenon in much of Africa the scope and scale of this process is. Those who were engaged in non-farm activities accumulated their capital from above and using it judiciously to appropriate farmlands in most rural communities. The influence of the elite minority in farmland acquisition is illustrated in table 4.4.

Table 4.4 Occupations of farmers and tractor owners

Occupation of I own farm I hire manual Total respondents machine ploughing

Farmer 6 20 2 28

(30.0%) (54.1%) (66.7%) (46.7%)

Trader 2 5 0 7

(10.0%) (13.5%) (0.0%) (11.7%)

Civil servant 10 12 1 23

(50.0%) (32.4%) (33.3%) (38.3%)

Pensioner 2 0 0 2

(retired) (10.0%) (0.0%) (0.0%) (3.3%)

Total 20 37 3 60

Source: 2016 Field Work

Table 4.4 shows that 10 respondents representing 50% of those who own tractors are civil servants. Only 6 of the respondents representing 30% are farmers who own tractors. This means that majority of the tractor owners are civil servants and a lot of farmers depend on them for ploughing which results in a shortage of tractors and hence demand outstrips 70

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supply. This leads to negotiation and lobbying to get farm fields ploughed on time by farmers. The civil servants who own these tractors plough their own fields first before rendering services to other farmers.

Table 4.5 Land holdings of different occupation groups

Occupation Median Mean Minimum Maximum Total Total of farmers acres acres acreages no. of

farmers

Farmer 14.50 29.54 3 170 827 28

Trader 12.00 16.00 5 41 112 7

Civil 41.00 56.52 5 220 1300 23 servant

Pensioner 20.50 20.50 15 26 41 2

(retired)

In table 4.5, the mean land holdings of civil servants are 56.52 with total acreages of

1300. On the other hand, the mean acres of farmers are 29.54 with a total acreage of 827.

This means that land holdings of civil servants are more than the other category of workers. From the data, 5 farmers have over 50 total acreages of land and 15 farmers cultivate a total land area of more than 10 acres.

The process of acquiring land in the respective communities varies from one community to the other. In certain instances, some commercial farmer‘s contacted family heads to get

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access to the farmlands. Most of the commercial farmers got their farmlands by expressing interest to farm through a native in the farming community who then links him up to the chief linguist. He first of all provides what is often known as cola or drink money of 10 cedis so as to open negotiation for him to have access to the field. Mr.

Zakari Mustapha, a forty-seven year old man who is educated and currently serves as a

Man-Power of Ghana Education Office in the district narrated that although he was born into farming and worked as a labourer in his youthful age, he only developed interest in farming in the last four years, when he realized it was a profitable venture:

I started farming in 2010 because it is financially beneficial. I currently have

about 40 acres of rice field and 10 acres of maize farm. Here usage of farmland is

virtually free, except that anyone who has interest need to see the landowners and

make arrangements to use the land. When I got my rice fields, the land owner told

me to use it for two years. Every year I go to renew the mandate with the land

owner and depending on the yield, I offer some bags of rice. If you do not do it

continuously, then the land might be given to somebody in the next farming

season. In this area, farmland is virtually free, so anyone who want land to farm

need to see the landowners and make arrangements to use the land.

Mostly those who release land for ploughing services are among the poorer farmers in the district. They have access to these fields either through inheritance or by first occupancy right but has very small capital to develop the field on a larger scale. So farmers armed with farm machinery and financial capital approach them for farmland then it becomes easy where they release large portions of their field in exchange of

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ploughing services and then you in turn plough some 3 to 5 acres of land for the landowner.

4.5 Patterns of investment in crop production in Nanun

The nature of investment in food crop production is influenced by the demand in the local markets. Farmers used to invest largely in the production of yam for household consumption and for the market. This has changed to the production of maize and rice.

The commercial farmers who are engaged in these activities especially in the production of maize, soya beans and rice easily feel they reap more profits from these crops than yam. Animal rearing is also another venture that farmers invest their capital. Farmers also believe that the investment cost is moderate and the yield is very high. They approximated that an acre of maize or rice can give fifteen bags. As a result, recent years have witnessed an unprecedented surge in demand for large areas of farmland in the area for the production of these food crops – especially in Jua, Sangnaayili, Chamba,

Bangdiyili etc. where fertile farmlands are comparatively cheaper and abundant.

Commercial farmers have recently sought to expand their portfolio of land by either renting extra land or ‗purchasing‘ rights of access to farmland from both traditional leaders and individuals. This is greatly influenced by civil servants who had access to wages from formal employment which has become an important source of investment in this increasingly commercialized agriculture.

The marketing of the farm produce is a big problem. The market women are the main people who purchase these foodstuff and they still measure with bowls even when

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farmers have more than hundred bags of any of the foodstuff. The rice is bought by women for par boiling which normally break the grains and leave some particles in the rice. There is a company called ‗AVANASH‘ in Tamale that engages in the buying of rice, but they do not like par boiled rice and they are not ready to buy from local farmers.

Maize and rice are measured in bowls and not in kilograms. The market women come from Tamale, Accra, Yendi, Bawku, Salaga and from many other places to purchase foodstuff in Bimbilla. Table 4.5 details the various crops and the percent that is put under cultivation by farmers in the area. For instance, yam is a traditional crop in the area of which 52 of the respondents are engaged in its cultivation representing 17.5% but the maximum number of acres that are set out for yam cropping is twenty (20) acres. This is far below the maximum number of acres used for maize and rice cultivation – 100 acres and 140 acres respectively. The number of respondents (farmers) who engaged in maize production was 54 representing 18% and 35 farmers representing 12% were also involved in the cultivation of rice. Almost everybody interviewed was farming maize simply because it is a staple crop. About half of the respondents are into soya bean cultivation and they solely do it for market provisioning.

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Table 4.6 Crops cultivated by farmers

Crops No. of farmers Percent of what

cultivating each

crop

Yam 52 17.5%

Groundnut 19 6.4%

Maize 54 18.2%

Rice 35 11.8%

Pepper 9 3.0%

Millet 22 7.4%

Guinea corn 18 6.1%

Soya beans 32 10.8%

Cassava 22 7.4%

Beans 1 0.3%

Sorghum 2 0.7%

Cashew 1 0.3%

267 100.0%

Source: 2016 Field Work

4.6 Relationship between land owners and commercial farmers

In the process of gaining access to farmlands farmers normally develop partial relationship with land owners but these relations are interest based and as soon as the common interest vanishes, the bond also gets weakened. The production of rice for

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instance occurs on valley lands and before any farmer gets the fields to plough he needs to negotiate with land owners. These negotiations are normally informal and the right to farm on the field whether maize, rice, yam or any food crop as a commercial farmer depends on continues building of contacts and network in the farming community. Some of the farmers lamented that they are normally not given fixed time period in which to have access to the farm either for one year, two years or three years, but the kind of arrangements occurs in such a way that every year the farmer has to renegotiate with land owners to get more land or reduced access depending on the behavior and relationship developed with land owners over the previous year.

Due to competition for the rice fields, every farmer would first of all provide some ploughing service for the land owner after gaining access to the land. In an interview with Mr. Adam Mashal, a former Principal of the E.P Training College in

Bimbilla and a known commercial farmer indicated that the increase in demand for farmland is eventually transforming the land relations in the area. He used to farm about seventy acres of maize field and got the land free from the traditional leaders in Jua. For him, it was out of good will that he sent some foodstuff to the land owners after harvesting the food crops. He narrates that:

Now times have changed and when people gain access to farm land they plough at

least an acre for the land owner. Every year people go to renew their

commitments with land owners to avoid the issue of losing those lands and

minimize the tendency of land owners releasing the land to a different person.

This is the main reason why farm lands are not sold in the area. So that land

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owners can continue to exercise control over the land in the area. This is because

when farmers fail to show up in a particular year, you will find it difficult to

release the land to a different person. The difficulty with commercial farming

activities has to do with the releasing of plenty farm lands to individuals which

constraints the access to the field by small scale farmers.

Those who beg for farmlands from land owners are responsible for looking for tractors to plough their fields and after harvesting they give some of the food stuff to the land owner or the chief to show appreciation. The dynamics have changed and commercial farmers who seek for land from land owners rather plough an acre or two for the land owner to foster good relationship and understanding among them. The benefits associated with these kinds of arrangements are two-fold; whilst the land owners who have large families and lack the necessary capital to develop the fields in order to fully utilize the farmlands are now able to get some portions ploughed for them; the commercial farmers through these negotiations are also able to appropriate appreciable quantity of farmlands from land owners. As household population is increasing, it will lead to fragmentation of the available land which could result in conflict between land owners and commercial farmers. As more people enter into farming, it will get to a time when the land owners will need some portions to give to family relations and the land might have been given to commercial farmers.

Some farmers are also entering into ruminants production thus the rearing of animals, which when fully developed will need grazing places. This could ultimately lead to fragmentations of available farmlands. Commercial farmers are not given time lines in

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their access to the field or definite time period within which to release the land or stop farming on a particular land. It is usually those who sought for the land, they abandoned the farm land without informing the land owners. For instance, Iddrisu Adam, a native from Dakpam and a small scale farmer laments that:

The accesses to farmlands by individual who come to beg for the lands in this

community are not regulated by any traditional law or formal law. After obtaining

the land the individual farmer has no fixed time within which to stop farming in

the area. In fact they use these lands in perpetuity until the farmer who sought for

the land does something wrong. For instance, withdrawal of services previously

rendered to land owners by either giving of food stuff or ploughing some number

of acres for land owners can result in the farmer losing the land. So the activities

of these commercial farmers will in future be a big problem because some of them

will want to permanently acquire these farmlands from land owners which could

potentially create problems in the area. There are native lands and traditional

lands. People related to those areas will not have any issue going into the future in

accessing farm lands. But non-natives from the respective farming communities

are most likely to face land problems.

From the above, it can be deduced that land owners are aware of the dangers involved in releasing farmlands to commercial framers. This implies that their inability to cater for ploughing services and take good care of the crops is partly a reason why they allow those transactions in their localities.

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4.7 Labour and Commercial Farming Relations

Farming activities involve the use of labour, thus, to engage in farming without labour is fundamentally difficult to pursue as a venture. This is a more reason why both commercial farmers and non-commercial farmers hire the services of these labourers in neighboring communities where they can get access to these labourers. Commercial farmers normally engage labourers to make mounds for yam cultivation, planting, weeding, and spraying, harvesting, broadcasting, padding of rice. The labourers are engaged on daily basis but most of them are not permanent labourers. Those who have permanent labourers have close family relations with them and some of them look after the farms for the commercial farmers. Those who hire labourers on permanent basis ranges between 10-15 labourers and those who do by-day for some short time are paid as they go. There is competition for labourers during peak farm seasons and this cause labour to become scarce as a result some farmers fall on students during weekends.

There are lead farmers (out growers) who also double as commercial farmers and provide ploughing services to people. The maximum number that commercial farmers plough for land owners is usually 5 acres. Commercial farmers most often enter into informal arrangements with farmers where some of them pay in kind or cash after harvesting. Commercial farming activities are increasing every year and that is a major source of worry for small scale farmers and labourers. In an interview with Habib Imoro, a labourer in Chamba, he indicated that the commercial farming activities are not helping them in the community because:

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The commercial farmers come and take our farmlands from us and we go to work

for a pay. What we normally get from the by-day work cannot really help us to do

any meaningful thing but we have no option. They need our services to

accomplish their farming activities but the remunerations are very low. During

planting period, they pay us 7 cedi a day. It was weeding of farms that used to

give us money. The commercial farmers and any other farmer now use herbicides

to control weeds that have affected our work. After the farming season is over we

struggle to survive and the commercial farmers are not even living with us that

you could seek for help from them against the next farming season. If we could

develop the farm lands ourselves then, it could have solved most of our problems.

Farming requires more capital and most of us in the rural communities do not

have the resources to develop these fields.

4.6 Presentation of case studies.

Below is an illustration of individual narratives on farming activities and the relations it produces on agricultural commercialization. The individual case histories will further give a hint on modes of land acquisitions and hinge on antecedents in labour relations as well as land tenure systems in the area.

Case Study 1: Tindana Dokurigu: A retired civil servant

Mr. Tindana Dokurigu is a retired civil servant and he is 62 years old. He had served as a civil servant for 42 years before retiring in 2014. He was less than ten years when his parents died. After a successful completion of Agricultural College in 1972, he

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was posted to Nakpayili Primary School and then transferred to Lugni Primary in 1973. It was in Lugni that he started a half-acre cotton farm. After harvesting, he noticed the amount he got from the crop was ten times his monthly salary. This was where he determined that farming is a profitable business. He continued farming and extended it to

2 acres and continued farming to feed the family and support him financially but he was then not a commercial farmer. After his retirement, he now cultivates 23 acres of maize,

10 acres of yam and 15 acres of rice. He owns a tractor and a corn sheller. He indicated that rice was his preferred crop because, when he farmed 15 acres of rice field last year, he got more than 150 bags and indicated that rice was in high demand and it does not get spoiled easily. He further explained that where he farms was 21 kilometers away from

Bimbilla:

Where I farm is too far from the district capital and the competition over

farmlands is not very pervasive. I first went to the area and expressed interest

through a native at a village called ‗Kpagturiyili‘ and fortunately because I was a

worker at district education office almost everyone new me in the district because

we use to do monitoring. I was given access to the land and since then I have been

farming in that locality. The lack of readily available jobs in the locality is also

driving people into farming. Jobs are not available, people are not learning any

trade and the only available job for people is farming. The rice fields have vast

expands of valley lands and no single individual can farm all rice fields in a given

location because it requires a lot of capital to do rice farming.

Case Study 2 Hajia Wumbei Zenabu: A trader in farm produce

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Hajia Wumbei Zenabu is a 62 year old woman and married with 6 children. She indicated to me that she is a trader engaged in the buying and selling of farm produce.

She indicated that she does farming to cater for her children needs and to support herself because a man will not provide all your needs for you. She cultivates 5 acres of yam, 7 acres of maize, and 2 acres of soya beans. She said:

My husband is a farmer, so I asked for farmland and yam sets from him to start

farming. It is six years ago when I entered into serious farming, then I began

lobbying for farmland. Sometimes when he refuses to give me land to farm, I

normally tell my children to request for the farmland from him and secretly give it

to me to farm‖. For instance ―last year I was given four acres of farmland by my

uncle to farm soya beans and I ploughed 2 acres for him. The yield I got from the

soya beans farm was only 2 bags. This year I wanted to use the farmland to grow

maize, but the farmland has been given to a different man to farm.

Case Study 3: Iddrisu Ayi – A trader and commercial farmer

Iddrisu Ayi is a 52 year old woman and she is a business woman engage in buying and selling of foodstuff. She also engaged in the cultivation of food crops apart from trading and currently possesses a Motorcycle that assists her both in her trade and conveying her farm produce. She noted that;

In the past, women were not involved in the cultivation of main crops such as

yam, maize, and rice but instead cultivated okra pepper, and cowpea to prepare

soup for household consumption. We now cultivate almost all the crops due to our

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ability to hire labour and provide ploughing services for land. We are given

farmland to farm in exchange for doing any of these: ploughing some acres of

land for landowners, buying them fertilizers, and weedicides. Although, it is not

clearly spelt out that they are selling the farmland to us, but in exchange, it is

equivalent to leasing the farmland. I also provide financial assistance and seeds to

farmers at the peak of the farming season. When they harvest their food crops,

some payback in cash and others equivalent bags of their farm produce.

Case Study 4: Alhaji Yakubu Sule – A former labourer and now commercial farmer

Alhaji Yakubu Sule was adjudged the (District Best Farmer, 2015). He indicated that he has been farming for over 30 years now. He became a cattle header whilst he was with his uncles at an infancy age and used to follow them to farm. Farming was an occupation of my father and developed interest in it at infancy. His parents died when he was not fully grown and he started working a labourer on people‘s farms to make ends meet. He lamented that;

It was through the by-day work that I got my first wife across the sea. After the

Konkomba and Nanumba conflict in 1994/5, we formed groups and started

farming from one community to the other. When I accumulated some little

capital, I started doing my own farm.

He told me he now cultivates 6 acres of yam, 20 acres of maize, 20 acres of rice, 5 acres of cassava, and 4 acres of soya beans. He further explained that when he wanted land to farm

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I met a Konkomba man who is an elder in the community (Jakpamba) and

expressed interest in the land to farm maize. I gave him cola money of 10 cedis

and when he granted me access to the field I ploughed 3 acres for him and 20

acres for myself. If you want a rice field to farm, you need to get in touch with the

traditional authorities who exercises control over the valley lands. When you are

giving a valley land, in other to leave peacefully with the people, you establish

good relations by ploughing some acres for them. Since you are not living in that

community, they will protect the farm for you. You need to remember that the

farmland was not sold to you and your loyalty can be withdrawn at any time. Now

the relations have changed because our grandfathers first gave farmlands to

Konkombas when they received them in the early 1940s and we also get land to

farm through negotiations with the Konkombas

Case Study 5 Alhassan Ibrahim: A teacher

Alhassan Ibrahim (Kibos) is a professional teacher and has been teaching for the past twenty years. He is now a commercial farmer who is into the cultivation of maize, rice, and soya beans. He has a total land area of 190 acres of which he uses 130 acres for rice cultivation, 40 acres for maize production and 10 acres for soya beans cultivation. He decided to take farming as a full-time business because he realized when he invests into farming the returns on investment is often two times more than what he invested. He prefers the cultivation of maize and rice because he has observed the two crops has a lot of profit and ready buyers at all material time. He uses the food crop to feed his family

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and help the extended family during funerals and occasions. He narrated how he first got his farmland and indicated that;

For my rice fields, I went and met the community chief and he gave me 70 acres

of farmland. I first approached him and presented cola to him and later ploughed

5 acres for him. I also provided him with seeds and during farm maintenance; I

helped him with herbicides and fertilizer. Tractors are very scarce in this area and

so I normally provide ploughing services to farmers at the beginning of the

farming season. The farmers pay 10 cedis per acre before I plough their farmland

for them and when they remove the foodstuff, they pay one bag per acre. The

normal cost for ploughing an acre is sixty cedi. When farmers start harvesting

food crops a bag of maize is 100 cedi and a bag of rice is 80 cedi. Through the

provision of the ploughing services, I managed to have three hundred and sixty

farmers (who I classified as my out-growers). Because when the farmers pay back

in kind after harvesting, I also buy their farm produce and sell it to a company

called premium fruits in Kumasi and ADVANCE in Tamale. I have generated ID

cards for all the farmers who I provide ploughing services to and for which reason

I see them as my out growers

Case Study 6: Mr. Saaka Sayibu Alhassan - District Director of MOFA

Mr. Saaka Sayibu Alhassan is the Nanumba North District Director of MOFA. He explained to me that he was born into farming and as a young boy, farming was the occupation of his parents and through that he became a farmer. This was partly why he went to study horticultural science at the secondary school and proceeded to do it both

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college and university level. He has 4 acres of yam farm, 3 acres of maize farm and 14 acres of rice farm. A crop that he prefers cultivating is yam because he feeds the family with it and further indicated that the primary factor of being a farmer is to meet the food needs of the family. He hails from Tamale and this was how he acquired his farmland;

When I wanted land to farm I went and met the chief through his linguist and

declared my intention to farm a particular crop. Then they showed me somebody

who helped me get access to farmland. But before we got to the chief palace I

obeyed the customs of the area by providing cola for the chief. The owner of the

land first gave 3 acres to farm maize and when I developed a good relationship

with him and consolidated our trust he showed where to get more land and that is

how come I now cultivate about 14 acres of rice field.

4.7 Conclusion

There are multiple pathways by which agricultural commercialization and land consolidation can occur. This chapter explored emergent land markets within rural areas and the impact of agricultural commercialization on various forms of land transactions and labour relations, and the extent to which this results in the dispossession of smallholder farmers. Appropriation of agricultural land can occur through accumulation from below, by investments of smallholder farmers within a process of investing farm profits in further expansion of farming activities. It can also occur from above, by investments of other actors who have accumulated capital outside of agriculture into agriculture, which they see as a profitable venture. The chapter revealed that the main

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source of accumulation within agriculture in Bimbilla occurs from investments of traders, civil servants, bureaucrats who use their savings to gain access to farmlands.

The findings revealed that the new pathways in which people alienate agriculture land from poor farmers is through the hiring of tractors and providing ploughing services to landowners in exchange for land which reveals that land owners lack the necessary capital to hire tractor services. It also revealed that majority of the farmers who have tractors were civil servants who accumulated their capital from non-farm activities and use this to influence land owners to appropriate vast expanse of farmlands through the provision of ploughing services and hiring out of tractors. The emerging paths through which appropriation occur include; Paying for ploughing services for land owners to get access to farmland, buying farm inputs like fertilizer and weedicides in exchange of farmland. Also, among the commercial farmers more than half of the tractor owners are civil servants.

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CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In this study, I examined the impact of agricultural commercialization on land and labour relations and how it affects the holdings of small scale farmers. I also looked at transaction in land and the emergence of various types of formal and informal land markets in Nanumba North District. The study focused on transactions in land outside specific notions of land markets and how land is transacted and negotiated as part of a process of agricultural commercialization within general transactions, specifically on the rise of tractor ploughing as a means of gaining access to land.

The main commercial farmers are from Bimbilla the district capital, and take advantage of the lack of tractor services to insist in payment in kind, which includes both crops and land. The numbers of farmers who own tractors and are from Bimbilla are about 15 people representing 71% of tractor owners in the study area as compared to the remaining 29% percent farmers who hail from other villages. This means that tractor owners cultivate significant number of farmland than those who hire tractor services.

Tractors are so scarce and land owners cannot find tractor operators to plough their land for them but rather rely heavily on those hiring tractors to plough their land in exchange for land. This lead to excessive demand for tractor services due to limited number of tractors that pushed the price of ploughing to go up and for which reason farmers are usually not able to afford the cash payments but instead resort to ploughing either on credit or to be paid an equivalent amount of a maxi bag of maize or rice after harvesting.

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Farmers are of the view that farming has now become capital intensive and those with financial capital are able to meet the needed targets by practicing the right farming methods. The farmers also hold a view that getting farmland in the area is becoming difficult due to expansion in farm size by commercial farmers that squeezes the available land thereby leading to conflict over land in the area. The majority of the respondents lamented that it is becoming difficult to acquire farmland or get access to farmland in the area. This is due to the activities of commercial farmers who end up ploughing more than

10 to 50 acres of land in their localities which leads to fragmentation of available farmlands leaving relatively smaller portions for majority of them to compete for land.

This result in conflict over farmland by individual farmers which is non-violent conflict but conflict of interest over who gains access to a more suitable fertile land.

Woodhouse and Chimwohu (2006) have observed that those who appropriate farmlands in large sums are those who use income earned from a full-time job and the knowledge and influence gained from bureaucratic and political offices, to take advantage of new opportunities in agriculture. Seeking land in rural communities is one way of gaining access to land without the cost of official registration and other procedures of formal land markets. A majority of the tractor owners are civil servants and a lot of farmers depend on them for ploughing which results in a shortage of tractors and hence demand outstrips supply. This leads to negotiation and lobbying to get farm fields ploughed on time by farmers.

The land holdings of civil servants are significantly larger than the other category of workers. Those who release land for ploughing services are mainly among the poorer

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farmers in the district. They have access to these fields either through inheritance or by first occupancy right but has very small capital to develop the field on a larger scale.

However, they lack access to sufficient labour to farm this land or capital to hire labourers and tractor ploughing services. As a consequence they are willing to transact land in exchange for access to tractor ploughing services that enables them to work portions of their land. The expansion of commercial farming is dominated by salaried workers in Bimbilla and few civil servants coming from Accra. A few commercial farmers have accumulated resources in agriculture locally. Agricultural commercialization has led to a shift in cropping systems with maize and rice complementing and displacing yam. Woodhouse and Chimwohu (2006) argue that failure to understand the nature and extent of land markets under customary tenure regimes risks obscuring the processes through which the poor have access to land and disabling efforts to maintain or improve that access.

Chauveau (2000) describes the ―tutorat‖ land relation in Côte d‘Ivoire and indicates that it is a relationship between a migrant farmer and indigenous landowner based on a relationship of patronage. Subsequently, the moral economy of land became increasingly commoditized and land sales are disguised as customary presentations. This assertion by Chauveau has some correlation with the rendition of Brukum (1998) on transformations between Konkombas and Nanumbas where Nanumba landlords initially controlled land which was farm by subjugated groups which later changed after the

Konkomba - Nanumba conflict in 1994/5. As consequent labour is no longer provided as tributes but occur within an internal market. Similarly, youth no longer provide labour

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services for their in-laws and family elders but farm independently and hire out their labour.

The migrant youth composing largely of Konkombas now possess some farm land and usually release some to Nanumbas to farm based on informal negotiations of rendering ploughing services and farm maintenance. It was the less privileged people and strangers who used to farm for the chief and send some farm produce to the chief palace every year to take care of his family and partly to show appreciation to the landowners.

Times have changed and monetary exchanges dominate all activities within communities.

As Peters (2004) noted, a key indicator of commoditization of land is the transition from the ‗gifts‘ historically expected as tokens of acknowledgement of customary authority and of anticipated reciprocity, to payments more closely related to exchange values of the land. Commoditization of land works to the disadvantage of those with lower purchasing power, thus threatening reduced access to land and potentially further impoverishment for the poorer among existing land users. Although informal land markets are ‗socially embedded‘ within the social relations of contemporary African rural society, increasing competition and social conflict around land and landed resources across Africa belies the assumption that socially embedded systems of landholding and land use guarantee access.

In conclusion, most academic and media attention on the growing interests in

African land and land intensification has focused on the rapid increase in global investments in African land for the large-scale production of food and fuel crops. Jayne et al., (2014) findings revealed two categories of accumulators thus, people primarily

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engaged in non-farm jobs and investing in land and relatively privileged rural-born men who were then able to acquire large landholdings as they started out their careers. They further noted that majority of the new accumulators acquired their farms after the age of forty. Using their savings from their non-farm jobs, they were able to acquire farms and enter farming during their mid-life stages. Those who accumulated from below entered farming earlier than their counterparts. They tend to have smaller holdings than more recent entrants from the non-farm sector.

This study contributes to the literature on the emergence of middle-scale commercial farmers in Africa (Jayne et al., 2014), in which to date few studies have been carried out in Ghana, with the exception of Teye, Yaro and Torkivey (2016) paper presented at 2016 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, who study various forms of agricultural commercialization including the emergence of commercial mango farmers in Somanya farming up to 200 hectares.

This study has also revealed that a significant proportion of the land in Nanumba

North District is farmed by civil servants, who had a mean of 57 acreages as compared to mean acreages of 30 controlled by the local farmers. While the civil servants have captured much land this has occurred outside of formal market transactions for land.

Most of this land has been captured in exchange for ploughing services or in exchange for farm inputs. More than half of the commercial farmers own tractors, which are used to alienate land from poorer farmers. This, therefore, shows that land alienation is arising from the increasing commercialization of land and that land is being transferred from

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those with least resources to invest in commercial agriculture to those with the most resources.

Thus agricultural investment is not determined by the existence of well-defined land markets. However, lack of access of poor farmers to agricultural services, such as ploughing, increases inequality and results in poor farmers transacting lands that they struggle to cultivate without modern technologies to gain access to agricultural services.

Therefore the lack of access to agricultural services undermines the ability of smallholders to utilize their land and makes them vulnerable to appropriation by large farmers.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Cortula (P.177) argues that the land rush accelerates the breaking up of the relationship between land and labour with investors taking the land and rural people providing labour. In Ghana agrarian markets are uneven and poorly serve poor farmers.

Where markets provide limited access to agricultural services, these can be used politically to dispossess small farmers of lands.

In this case study, control over limited supply of tractors is being used by urban- based middle farmers to gain access to rural lands and crops. Among these middle farmers are well connected political elites, who use their access to political networks of power to gain favorable access to tractors and lands, resulting in less land availability for smallholders. Since this has the potential to both distort markets and access of smallholders to land it is important that government both collects data on the

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developments of middle scale farmers and their impacts on land availability at the local level.

It is also important that government facilitates access to market agricultural services such as tractor ploughing for smallholders, ensuring that these are widely available and not controlled by a class of aspiring large-scale farmers with political connections.

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APPENDIX 1.1 Questionnaire on agricultural commercialization INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON

SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL COMMERCIALIZATION ON LAND TENURE RELATIONS IN NANUMBA NORTH DISTRICT. This questionnaire is designed to gather information solely for academic purpose. I assure you that your identity and the information you provide will be treated with utmost confidentiality. Thank you.

SECTION A: INFORMATION ON COMMERCIAL FARMING

1. When did you start farming?

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2. Where did you learn how to farm and from whom?

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…...... …

3. Do you have other family members who are farmers?

a) Yes [ ]

b) No [ ]

4. If yes, mention the types of crops they grow.

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…...... … 5. What influenced you to go into commercial farming?

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6. What are some of the crops you currently cultivate and where? Please kindly list them. Crop Location

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…………………………. …………………………… ………………………….. ……………………………. ………………………….. …………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………….. 7. Why do you prefer growing a particular crop(s)?

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8. Which crop(s) do you consider to be the most profitable crop to grow in this area?

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…...... … 9. How many acres of land are you currently cultivating? a) 1-5 b) 6-10 c) 11-15 d) 20 and above 10. How many bags do you normally get from the crop(s)?

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…...... … 11. How long have you been farming? ………………………………………………………………………………………… …...... ….. …………………………………………………………………………………………

SECTION B: INFORMATION ON LAND TENURE

12. How did you acquire your farm land? …………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

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…...... … 13. How far is your farm from your home?

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14. If you want to acquire farm land in this area, what are the different ways to get land? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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a) If bought how much did you buy it for? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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b) If leased how much did you lease land a year?

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c) If inherited from whom did you inherit it from?

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d) If shared crop, how do you share?

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15. Who controls the sale of land in this community?

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…...... … 16. What process do individuals normally go through in other to access farm land in this area?

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17. Have you ever sold any land? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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18. Why did you sell the land? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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19. Have you ever sublet land to any one? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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20. Why did you sublet the land? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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…...... …

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21. What were the arrangements? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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22. Do you ever work as a labourer?

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23. Who do you work for as a labourer?

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WOMEN AND FARM LAND ACQUISITION

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24. Do women own land in this community? …………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... … 25. How do women acquire farm land? …………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

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26. Is it difficult for women to get land? ………………………………………………………………………………………… …...... … 27. Does clans/lineage play a role in farm land acquisition? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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28. Is it difficult to get farm land in this area? …………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

29. If yes, why is it getting difficult to acquire farm land?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

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…...... …

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

COST OF FARM LAND 30. How much does land cost now?

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31. Is farm land becoming more expensive?

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32. IF yes, why is it becoming too expensive?

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33. Can you remember the cost of farm land in the past?

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34. When did people start leasing farm land?

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35. Who are the large farmers in this area?

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SECTION C: INFORMATION ON INVESTMENT

36. How many farms do you have?

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…...... …

37. How do you clear the land?

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38. What tools do you use to prepare the land –tractor or animal traction or hand hoe and cutlass?

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39. Do you own any farm machine or you hire eg Tractor etc

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…………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... … 40. Do you practice mechanize farming? …………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

b. If yes, which farming activities do you use the machine for? ………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………

41. Do you usually cut all the trees on the farm? Or you always preserve some?

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…...... …

42. List the tree species that you normally preserve on your farm?

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…...... …

43. Do you have dawadawa trees on your farm?

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…...... …

44. If yes, do you preserve the dawadawa trees and why?

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45. How often do you clear new plots for cultivation-once every year, twice every year etc?

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46. Where do you get money to farm?

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47. Do you receive any loans to farm? (a) Yes (b) No a) If yes, from whom do you receive loans?

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…………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

b) If no, please explain your source of funding?

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…...... 48. Where did you get your seeds to farm?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

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49. How much did you spend on seeds?

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50. Do you use fertilizer on your farm? (a) Yes (b) No a) If yes, then which crops do you apply fertilizer to?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

b) Where did you get fertilizer from?

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…...... …

c) What do you use to measure fertilizer for farm application? Cup, bowl (gbarigbuni), pehuu (calabash), etc? d) Do you normally buy bags of fertilizer?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

e) If yes, how many bags did you use this year?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…...... …

f) What type of fertilizer did you use?

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g) How much did you spend on fertilizer this year?

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51. Do you use weedicides to clear your farm land? (a) Yes (b)No

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a) If yes, what type of weedicide do use?

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b) Where did you get your weedicide from?

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c) How many bags did you use?

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d) So, how much did you spend on fertilizer?

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52. Do you take labor to help you in your farm? (a) Yes (b) No a) How many labors have you hired in the last year?

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b) What work do you hire labor to do?

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c) How many days do you hire labor for?

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53. What is your source of labor?

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54. If family, which type?

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55. If nuclear, which of your relations?

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56. How and where do you store your farm produce after harvest?

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………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………

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…...... … 57. Who do you normally sell your farm produce to?

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58. Do you have any arrangement with buyers or any company?

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a) If yes, what is the arrangement?

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b) If no, please explain how you get access to the market?

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…...... … 59. Do you belong to any farmers association? (a) Yes (b) No a) If yes, then which of the associations?

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SECTION D: BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF RESPONDENTS

60. What is your sex? a) Male [ ] b) Female [ ] 61. How old are you? a) 15-19 [ ] b) 20-25 [ ] c) 26-30 [ ] d) 31-35 [ ] e) 35 and above [ ]

62. What is your religious denomination? a) Christian [ ] b) Muslim [ ] c) Traditional [ ] d) Others, please kindly specify...... 63. Are you a native of this community? a) Yes [ ] b) No [ ] 64. Where were you born? a) Yes [ ]

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b) No [ ] 65. Where are you from? ……………………………………….. 66. What is your level of Education? a) Basic [ ] b) Koranic/Islamic [ ] c) Secondary/Commercial/Vocational [ ] d) Tertiary [ ] 67. What is your marital status? a) Single [ ] b) Married [ ] c) Divorced [ ] d) Widowed [ ] 68. If married, how many wives do you have? a) One [ ] b) Two [ ] c) Three [ ] d) Four and above [ ] 69. How many children do you have? a) None [ ] b) 1-3 [ ] c) 4-6 [ ] d) 6 and above [ ] 70. What is the size of your household? a) 0-4 [ ] b) 5-8 [ ] c) 9-13 [ ] d) 15 and above [ ] 71. Are you the head of your family? e) Yes [ ] f) No [ ]

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72. If no, indicate your position in the family? …………………………………………………………………………………………

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