Women’s access to irrigated land in a patrilineal customary area: Baare Community Irrigation Project. E. O. Akrofi Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Outline of Presentation Introduction Access to land, Irrigation and women land rights Methodology Case study area, Data collection Findings Development , Management and Assessing land at BCI Benefits to community Conclusion and recommendations Acknowledgement

Introduction Customary tenure dominate in most of rural Africa Access to land is linked to gender Inheritance (matrilineal or patrilineal) favour men Women have user-right most often of degraded land Climate change is worsening the plight of women

Irrigation Irrigation can improve the returns on land Household food security, improve income and reduce poverty However, there is fierce competition for irrigated land Irrigation infrastructure may also displace vulnerable groups

Women loose out, because they are neither recognised land right holders nor family heads Irrigation may therefore perpetuate poverty Women may resort to distress sales their use rights as a result of rising land values The objective of this presentation is to discuss an irrigation project that favors women in a patrilineal customary area in the Upper East Region of Ghana

Baare Community Irrigation Talensi District in UE Region Subsistence Farmers Patrilineal Inheritance Raining season May–Oct Dry season Nov.-April

Data collection Secondary data - existing literature Primary data key informants consultation focus group discussions and questionnaires

Findings The objectives for establishment reducing youth migration, poverty alleviation and enhance food security Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) under the Small Scale Irrigation Projects (SSIP). IFAD and African Development Bank insists of equal access to land for men and women

Findings The Chief of Baare volunteered land for the construction of the dam Individual families along the dam leased their land to GIDA for 99 years during the dry season Land owners do not receive any payment for the lease.

Findings GIDA’s right to use the land is only limited to the dry season, the land revert to the rightful owners during the raining season The leased land is consolidated and subdivided to interested farmers during the dry season. Approximate farm size is about 15m by 15m

Management Water users Association (WUA) Land allocation committee (LAC) Water distribution committee (WDC) Finance committee (FC) No women in any of the committees and they did not see anything wrong!

Accessing land at BCI All members of the WUA are eligible to access land Allocation is on a first come first serve basis upon the payment of a fee (Irrigation Service Charge – GHC 203/hectare as at 2014) As at 2014 there were 185 farmers, out of which 104 women (56.2%).

Benefits

Benefits xxxxxxxx

Benefits Equity in accessing land in the dry season Enhance food production in the community Reduced poverty of the people Peaceful and happy community

Conclusions Customary tenure is flexible and may be adapted to suite changing conditions Public private partnerships (GIDA and Community) are useful in meeting the needs of the vulnerable Community participation in projects can ensures sustainability

Recommendations Need for further research to ascertain whether the composition of the farmers is not as a result of the small farm sizes and the type of crops being cultivated.

Acknowledgement I am grateful to all key stakeholders who provided valuable data for this work Mutaru Fuseini Ada and Ziblim Alhassan who assisted in the field data collection.

Thank you for your attention.