The increasing population and urbanization in peri-urban Ghana have affected migrant farmers' land resource and livelihoods. The high demand of land for residential and developmental purposes has resulted in re-possession of farmlands in peri urban areas by land owners, at the expense of migrant farmers. This study analyses the extent of vulnerability challenges that affect migrant farmers as a result of land repossession, and alternative strategies employed to curb the challenge. A mixed method approach research was conducted in three communities: Oda, Asene, and Aboabo. The study adapted the sustainable livelihood approach in analyzing vulnerability challenges, and livelihood strategies. The study findings revealed that migrant farmers become economically and socially vulnerable temporarily because of land re-possession, but consequently, devise alternative livelihood strategies to ameliorate the problems. The study recommends that migrant farmers should have their farmlands registered to cover all contractual agreements with landowners to secure land for farming activities.
TopIntroduction
The demand for land has been increasing following the growth of investment prospects, especially after the introduction of economic liberalization policies in the mid1980s (Odhiambo, 2006). The land is significant to the urban poor across the globe. It has essential value and generates numerous economic opportunities (Mearns, 1999). A plot of land in urban areas provides a household with physical, financial; as well as nutritional security. It also provides the poor with a source of wage (Mearns, 1999). In Africa, access to land by the poor is essential for sustainable poverty reduction (Odhiambo, 2006).
However, land re-possession by landowners in Africa, especially Ghana, has affected the livelihoods of migrant farmers (Anaafo, 2011). Landowners in peri-urban Ghana re-possess farmlands initially offered to farmers for farming activities as a result of increasing population and urbanization (Owusu, 2008). This has posed a threat to the land resource sustainability of farmers in peri-urban areas (Yaro, 2012). The pressure from the demand for land has caused rapid changes in peri-urban farmlands. The changes occur primarily in the physical development and transformation of agricultural land uses to non-agricultural land uses (Ubink, 2008). This is due to the comparative cost of peri-urban lands to the cities (GSS, 2010). The transformation in land uses, in peri-urban areas has consequently been characterized by intense competition causing challenges to land access by farmers (Adam, 2016). The changes in agricultural lands have deprived local farmers in peri-urban areas to improve livelihoods (Owusu, 2008). Many farmlands are lost to residential and commercial developments without fair compensation to farmers (Kasanga & Kotey, 2001).
Scholars have argued that intensive land use and land cover transformation in Africa are a result of the migration of people into forest areas (Fernside 1986; Postel, 1988). In Ghana, the origin of migrant farmers is traced to the cocoa boom during the 1960s in the forest belt in Ashanti, Eastern, Western, and Brong Ahafo (Hill, 1963). Hill (1963), describes migrant farmers as Abusa labourers who are engaged in established farms and supplied with inputs to manage farms and receive a reward with a third of the proceeds from the harvest. The migrant farmers are sharecroppers, responsible for the expenses of clearing and cultivating the land allotted by the landlord and consequently receive a two-thirds share of either the physical farm or proceeds (Hill,1956; Benneh,1988). The migrant farmers have no ownership rights over land or farm, and their farmlands can be re-possessed by landowners for developmental projects without compensation (Ministry of Lands and Forestry, 2003). Migrant farmers lose farmlands to estate developers as a result of the increasing demand for land for housing and industrial activities in peri-urban areas in Ghana (GSS, 2010). These issues have questioned the migrant farmer's access to farmland and have posed threats to agricultural productivity and livelihoods in the Municipality. Any disregard for migrants’ livelihoods is a recipe for widespread hunger, inequality, and deprivation in peri-urban areas (Yaro, 2012).