Denial of Women Farmers to Agricultural Productive Land the cause of Food Insecurity-WMD

     

A research conducted in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern region has revealed that one of the major factors contributing to household food insecurity problem in the area is the denial of smallholder women farmers to agricultural productive land. 

The research findings which  was made known at a sensitization forum organized at the Tikarinongu community in the District, attracted stakeholders including traditional authorities, opinion leaders, women and youth groups, local authorities among others. 

The research conducted by the Tikarinongu Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Union at the Tikarinongu community, one of the communities in the District with funding support from the Business Sector Advocacy Challenged BUSAC Fund was aimed at addressing the challenges confronting smallholder rural women farmers in the White Volta basin in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region of Ghana. 

The Tikarinongu Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Union is a predominantly women group mainly into farming and other agribusiness in the area. 

The research which pointed out that by gender, most of the fertile  farmlands are owned and controlled by the male family heads of the various communities , stressed that women only depended  on marginal and infertile  lands which have been abandoned  by their male counter parts for farming. 

This, the research noted, affected   the size of smallholder rural women farmers’ farms and variety of crops in the area leading to the food insecurity in   many of the households in the community.  

It also cited that most of the smallholder rural women farmers in the area also lacked access to credit facility, labor, traction services as well as general agricultural advisory services such as agriculture extension services. 

The research indicated that women in the communities are not considered when it comes to decision-making process pertaining to the land inheritance, stated that apart from the denial of women access to agricultural productive lands, other group members whose families do not have land at the river site cannot farm there. 

It recommended the need for advocacy and sensitization programmes to be carried out in the communities targeting traditional authorities, opinion leaders, local authorities, Civil Society Organizations, Women groups among others to ensure that smallholder rural women farmers gain  access to productive lands as well as  government’s agriculture policies and programmes particularly on agriculture extension, credit facilities, and good record keeping. 

Story by: GBC's Emmanuel Akayeti