Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/7219
Title: Gendered and generational tensions in increased land commercialisation: Rural livelihood diversification, changing land use, and food security in Ghana's Brong‐Ahafo region
Authors: Mariwah, Simon
Evans, Ruth
Antwi, Kwabena Barima
Keywords: Commercialization of land
Food security
Gender and generational inequalities
Ghana
Sustainable
Livelihoods
Youth aspirations
Issue Date: 2019
Publisher: University of Cape Coast
Abstract: Many smallholder farmers in Aman North District, Brong‐Ahafo Region, Ghana are shifting from food crop production to increased cultivation of cashew, an export cash crop. This paper examines gendered and generational tensions in increased commercialization of land, livelihood diversification, and household food security in the context of globalization and environmental change. Using qualitative, participatory research with 60 middle‐generation men and women, young people and key stakeholders, the research found that community members valued the additional income stream. Young people and women, however, were apprehensive about the long‐term consequences for food security of allocating so much land to cashew plantations. Young, middle, and older generations were concerned about their weak bargaining position in negotiating fair prices with export companies and intermediaries. Greater integration into the global economy exposed rural actors to multiple risks and inequalities, such as the uneven effects of economic globalisation, rises in food prices, hunger and food insecurity, growing competition for land, youth outmigration and climate change. The shift towards cashew cultivation appears to be exacerbating gender and generational inequalities in access to land and food insecurity and leading to exploitation within the global agri‐food supply chain among already vulnerable rural communities in the global South. With stronger farmer associations and cooperatives, however, cashew farmers stand the chance of benefitting from greater integration into the global economy, through strengthened bargaining positions. Greater understanding is needed about the complex interactions between sustainable food systems, changing land use and gender and generational inequalities in rural spaces
Description: 17p:, ill.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/7219
ISSN: 23105496
Appears in Collections:Department of Geography & Regional Planning

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