Políticas y líneas de acción

Developments within the land reform space and the capability space have implications for the ability of poor land actors to live meaningful lives and exit poverty. The WCI is used in Table 2 below to show the household livelihood assets and the poverty/deprivation status of the study participants.

Table 2: Summary of Poverty/Deprivation Status of Land Stressed Households

Indicator Poverty/Deprivation Level (%)

Not poor/deprived Poor/deprived Total Education

1. Primary school completion of interviewee 41.3 58.7 100

Ownership of Household Durable Assets 2. radio 3. TV 4. Refrigerator 5. Gas Cooker 6. Telephone 7. Fan 8. Bicycle 82.6 23.9 10.9 0 100 23.4 43.5 17.4 76.1 89.1 100 0 76.1 56.5 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Housing Conditions 9. Availability of water 10. Availability of toilet 11. Wall/Structure quality 12. Roof quality 0 4.4 15.2 21.7 100 95.6 84.8 78.3 100 100 100 100

Source: Summarised from Field Data on Household Livelihood Assets, 2013/14

Poor land users in Nkoranza are poor across a number of multi-dimensional indicators for measuring poverty under the WCI. Except for radio ownership (82.6 percent) and telephone ownership (100 percent), deprivation ranges from a minimum of 56.5 percent for bicycle ownership to 100 percent for ownership of gas cooker. The high levels of ownership of radio and telephone (mobile phones in this case) is not surprising. Most rural Ghanaians own a portable (two battery) radio set for listening to news. Mobile telephone services have

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also widely expanded across Ghana replacing traditional mediums of communication such as letter writing. And given that the land phone system is dysfunctional, mobile phone ownership is no longer seen as a luxury. Cost of usage is also very low as pre-paid credit is obtainable for an amount as low as USD $0.27 (Field observation, 2013/14).

People are much deprived on ownership of gas cookers and housing conditions. With respect to gas cookers, interviewees were of the view that the cost of running the gas cooker was the deterrent to its acquisition. They indicated that the current market price of USD $1.03 per kg for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is beyond their ability to maintain. Housing conditions are also deplorable because interviewees argued that it was expensive to have something as basic as private piped water systems in their homes because it is associated with monthly bills which they are unable to afford.

Broadly, while there are wide levels of poverty/deprivation among the land stressed actors in Nkoranza, the questions remains; to what extent is land reforms a factor? Qualitatively, this study has shown that, among the poor land actors, land is the most fundamental resource for generating livelihoods. Therefore, the current state of insecurity of land rights; the disposal of common access lands; the clearance of vegetative resources with livelihood benefits to the poor for large scale commercial monocultures without approved EIA reports; and the changing rural economy itself poses considerable challenges for the food security and livelihood outcomes of the poor.

It is clear from the Nkoranza case study, that the land tenure rights of the poor are increasingly becoming insecure, as chiefs have become the conduit for the expropriation of peasant lands to capitalists interests (Amanor, 2005). This is generating difficulties for social coherence as community members sidestep decisions of the chiefs in defense of their land rights; resulting in disrespect for the hitherto revered chieftaincy institution. Social coherence is threatened by insecurity of tenure over land, a resource seen largely as a social glue

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(Tsikata & Yaro, 2011). The lack of security over land access effectively threatens the livelihood and long-term coping strategies of poor land actors. These have grave implications for the long term food security of the poor because food security is a direct outcome of farmer security (Sachs, 2002).

The rural economy of Nkoranza is affected by on-going land reforms. There is increasing differentiation between “land owners” and “land users”. The current rhetoric of the “land belongs to the chiefs and not the chief takes care of the land” (Tsikata & Yaro, 2011, p. 26) changes the socio-cultural milieu within which land rights were negotiated. This system is contrary to the egalitarian nature of rural land access (Wily, 2003) and only serves the narrow interests of chiefs while neglecting the livelihood concerns of poor farmers (Ubink, 2007). The increasing differentiation, coupled with limited diverse opportunities and or skills sets, lack of access to financial credit deepens the vulnerability of the poor.

Again, it is clear that land reforms in Nkoranza are a reflection of the motivations of chiefs and the political elite rather than those of poor community land actors. The poor who are unable to engage effectively in the land market are limited to annual rental tenancies which are associated with the cultivation of food crops such as maize, yam, cassava, plantain, cocoyam among others. Food crops command low market prices in comparison with cash crops which are cultivated for metropolitan European, US and Asian markets. During this study, for example, 250kg of yam in the local market fetched USD $67.34, 100kg bag of maize went for USD $13.47, 91kg of cassava was USD $4.04 and 9-11kg of plantain USD $1.08 (Municipal Agricultural Development Unit, 2013). Meanwhile, cocoa commanded a staggering market price of USD $861.95 per metric tonne over the same period (Ghana Cocoa Board, 2012). Confining the poor to marginal agricultural practices will perpetuate and worsen their poverty situation.

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Current dynamics in Nkoranza show that the long term food security needs of the poor are in jeopardy. According to the Economic Commission for Africa (2004), food security is broadly a mixture of farm, non-farm, bush products, remittances, farm wages, social capital and wild food among others. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (2007) also estimates that 12-14 million Ghanaians derive their livelihoods from the commons. The commons are a source of water, fuel, thatch and wood for building, wildlife, fruits, medicinal herbs, leaves and branches and grazing rights. Recent developments through, land reforms, however, are resulting in a disappearing commons. The loss of non-farm livelihood activities, unmet energy needs and the destruction of productive ecosystems for monocultures are long term food security concerns. It is concluded from the discussions so far that diversity is the key to the sustenance of rural livelihoods and land is the basis. Access to unused land and other livelihood resources are crucial for the livelihoods of the poor and a major coping endowment for exiting poverty (Tsikata & Yaro, 2011). Land reforms in Nkoranza do not offer this diversity in support of rural livelihoods.

It can be argued therefore that land reforms in Nkoranza and elsewhere in Ghana are perpetuating rather than alleviating poverty. Townsend (2010), for instance argues that people are classified as rich or poor depending on their share of the resources available to all. He further argues that, the general understanding, then should be that persons and/or families whose share of resources, overtime, fall short of that commanded by the average person and/or family in the community in which they live are in poverty, whether that community is a local, national or international one. Besides, the resources devoted to the fight against poverty in any society are determined to a large extent by the political process (Madden, 2000). It is therefore generally concluded that the land reform system (political process) which opens up the communal resources of Nkoranza to the globalised market and metropolitan capital investments leads to less than optimal land access and use rights for

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usufructuaries such as women farmers and secondary land rights holders such as pastoralists and migrant farmers and invariably exposes them to poverty.

1.8 Conclusion

The main goal of development interventions (including land reforms) across most of Africa and the developing world generally, is poverty reduction. The Nkoranza case study, however, show women farmers, pastoralists and migrant farmers as a group of people heavily dependent on land; possessing minimal to no technical skills; possessing little to no capital and livelihood assets and among the poorest segments of the Nkoranza population. Land reforms which seek to reduce poverty and improve social stability rather have the potential to worsen poverty and generate instability due to wanton land sale by chiefs, resulting in insecurity of land tenure, landlessness and growing sense of conflict among the actors. Land rentals, based on annual tenancies restrict land stressed actors to the cultivation of food crops which command relatively low prices in the market. Their low income and asset levels also inhibits their ability to acquire loans from the formal financial system and invest in commercial farming as the banks prefer to offer loans to public sector workers and others with steady and predictable financial inflows (Domeher & Abdulai, 2012).

Land reforms have the potential to enable the poor exit poverty and live meaningfully. For that to be achieved, however, land reforms in Ghana need to be pursued as part of a broader, holistic and integrated development initiative. It must encompass the provision of free education to the most vulnerable and skills development for land stressed actors. It must also include measures to strengthen voice of community members, promote inclusiveness, enforce laws and regulations around land acquisitions, improve accountability and prevent the loss of usufructuary rights to the rent-seeking behaviour of chiefs. The broad policy goal should be targeted at strengthening rights of access for those who need land to exit poverty

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Chapter 6