The piper calls the tune: changing roles of Northern Ghanaian women in agriculture
Based on:
Journal Article (2017)
Even though men make most of the decisions in relation to access to land and productive technologies, the increasing role of international organisations, especially those who push for gender equality and policies, have provided an avenue for women to be able to access these resources in the non-traditional sense.
Brief by:
When the government irrigation schemes were created, the idea was to redistribute land to individuals within and external to the community who could grow crops that would meet the food demands in the different communities and regions amidst the changing climate. Having irrigation meant there was a supply of water to be able to farm more. It was also an entry point where farmers could be provided with access to inputs, like fertiliser which was in most cases subsidised by the government, probably resulting in good yields and high productivity that could meet the food insecurity issues in the region.
However, when these irrigation schemes were created, thought was not given to how inclusive and gender responsive they were going to be. By giving land to those they took the irrigation land from and to those who were interested, in a community like Northern Ghana which is patriarchal, it was the men who got the land.
Later, when there were more interactions with international organisations and a demand for the place of women in agriculture, a gender policy and plan was developed. Irrigation officials in these areas and the farmer associations sat down and discussed how to get women to be part of the land which was considered government owned. In most cases this meant that women got land on the outskirts of the irrigation sites, or land around the irrigation sites which was not meant for farming.
Key findings
Only male heads of the house had access to the land, so women had to negotiate with the men to be able to have access, not necessarily to farm but as harvesters or buyers of the crops to generate income and meet their food provisioning roles.
In Tamale, chiefs are the custodians of land, and traditionally men can access land not women, so women have to access or buy land through their male household members.
Women were able to negotiate access to resources and able to make income within the situation that they found themselves.
In addition to the women who were given a piece of land on their husbands fields off irrigation sites to grow vegetables for the households, there were few women who grew vegetables on their husbands land on the irrigation sites.
Other women who were not involved in the day-to-day activity of the land would harvest.
If a women harvested from land that was not from their husband’s plot, the women would be paid with some of the crops she harvested and could sell that for income. This was another way of providing food for their family and getting income for other household needs without necessarily having a plot of land.
Some women who couldn’t have access to the irrigation sites, would also grow vegetables at the edge of the husband's plot that are out of the irrigation sites.
However, these were dependent on climatic conditions that could not be controlled.
Women were also very much the ‘market queens’ and the ‘middlemen’.
Men would not sell crops from the irrigation sites in the market, instead women would buy the vegetables and sell them in the market. Interestingly, a man's wife would not be the one buying his vegetables, instead it would be a woman that is related to him or completely out of the family circle.
Proposed action
There is a need to move beyond gender sensitisation to more gender educational programs with men and women in each family in the community
The women’s role should be made visible – so if the woman is weeding then that is an important activity or if the woman is the one who is looking after the irrigation, that is an important activity
To support women, we need to build their capacity to invest in the value addition of their perishable products to increase the shelf life for better income
Get the women who are marketers to create a cooperative, so they have a standard market price they can sell these goods for, have a fair economy, and make more money
We need to engage with the private sector
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to iDE Global
These insights were made available thanks to the support of iDE Global, who are committed to the dissemination of knowledge for all.
Special thanks to Jasmyn Spanswick for preparation assistance
We would like to extend a special thank you to Jasmyn Spanswick, for their invaluable contribution in assisting the preparation of this research summary.
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The piper calls the tune: changing roles of Northern Ghanaian women in agriculture
Cite this brief: Nchanji, Eileen. 'The piper calls the tune: changing roles of Northern Ghanaian women in agriculture'. Acume. https://www.acume.org/r/the-piper-calls-the-tune-changing-roles-of-northern-ghanaian-women-in-agriculture/
Brief created by: Dr Eileen Nchanji | Year brief made: 2022
Original research:
- Nchanji, E., ‘The piper calls the tune: changing roles of Northern Ghanaian women in agriculture’ 32 (pp. 13–18) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322253268_The_piper_calls_the_tune_changing_roles_of_Northern_Ghanaian_women_in_agriculture. – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322253268_The_piper_calls_the_tune_changing_roles_of_Northern_Ghanaian_women_in_agriculture
Research brief:
Even though men make most of the decisions in relation to access to land and productive technologies, the increasing role of international organisations, especially those who push for gender equality and policies, have provided an avenue for women to be able to access these resources in the non-traditional sense.
When the government irrigation schemes were created, the idea was to redistribute land to individuals within and external to the community who could grow crops that would meet the food demands in the different communities and regions amidst the changing climate. Having irrigation meant there was a supply of water to be able to farm more. It was also an entry point where farmers could be provided with access to inputs, like fertiliser which was in most cases subsidised by the government, probably resulting in good yields and high productivity that could meet the food insecurity issues in the region.
However, when these irrigation schemes were created, thought was not given to how inclusive and gender responsive they were going to be. By giving land to those they took the irrigation land from and to those who were interested, in a community like Northern Ghana which is patriarchal, it was the men who got the land.
Later, when there were more interactions with international organisations and a demand for the place of women in agriculture, a gender policy and plan was developed. Irrigation officials in these areas and the farmer associations sat down and discussed how to get women to be part of the land which was considered government owned. In most cases this meant that women got land on the outskirts of the irrigation sites, or land around the irrigation sites which was not meant for farming.
Findings:
Only male heads of the house had access to the land, so women had to negotiate with the men to be able to have access, not necessarily to farm but as harvesters or buyers of the crops to generate income and meet their food provisioning roles.
In Tamale, chiefs are the custodians of land, and traditionally men can access land not women, so women have to access or buy land through their male household members.
Women were able to negotiate access to resources and able to make income within the situation that they found themselves.
In addition to the women who were given a piece of land on their husbands fields off irrigation sites to grow vegetables for the households, there were few women who grew vegetables on their husbands land on the irrigation sites.
Other women who were not involved in the day-to-day activity of the land would harvest.
If a women harvested from land that was not from their husband’s plot, the women would be paid with some of the crops she harvested and could sell that for income. This was another way of providing food for their family and getting income for other household needs without necessarily having a plot of land.
Some women who couldn’t have access to the irrigation sites, would also grow vegetables at the edge of the husband’s plot that are out of the irrigation sites.
However, these were dependent on climatic conditions that could not be controlled.
Women were also very much the ‘market queens’ and the ‘middlemen’.
Men would not sell crops from the irrigation sites in the market, instead women would buy the vegetables and sell them in the market. Interestingly, a man’s wife would not be the one buying his vegetables, instead it would be a woman that is related to him or completely out of the family circle.
Advice:
There is a need to move beyond gender sensitisation to more gender educational programs with men and women in each family in the community
- The importance of working together, making decisions together, getting income and deciding on where that income goes to as a team. This can help to move away from individual farming to family farming, where the male as the head of the household is not the only one with the control, but instead the woman and man have different roles to play on the farm.
The women’s role should be made visible – so if the woman is weeding then that is an important activity or if the woman is the one who is looking after the irrigation, that is an important activity
- The aim should not be to create new roles, but to tap on the strengths that both men and women have.
To support women, we need to build their capacity to invest in the value addition of their perishable products to increase the shelf life for better income
Get the women who are marketers to create a cooperative, so they have a standard market price they can sell these goods for, have a fair economy, and make more money
- With family farming, this income could be reinvested on the farm and used on inputs to increase productivity.
We need to engage with the private sector
- Build linkages with different markets like hotels and supermarkets. To do this, we need entrepreneurial training on food safety and contamination to ensure that when these crops are grown, men and women are knowledgeable on food safety.