Land Rights in Ghana

This article is related to a study on the rights to land in Ghana; with emphasis to the aspects of land acquisition structures and processes on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Bawku East District (BED) of Ghana. Almost everyone’s history or family root is always a saga of attachment to or alienation from land. There is no land without a titleholder. Naturally land belongs to three groups of people, namely, the dead, the living, and the unborn. At any point in time, the living is just a custodian of the land. The owner of a land is thus any person or group of people that have the reserved right; legally or customary to use, convey, lease, or assign a parcel of land. Land is a gift of nature, and it encompasses components like soil, rocks, and natural vegetation. It is observed as a public property that defined a community’s geographical range, its economic asset and socio-cultural heritage. Land covers all minerals and holds all immovable properties and buildings. Land is not just considered imperative to the agricultural villages but then in contemporary times it is viewed as the key pillar for evaluating economic growth with respect to capital and wealth. The study findings generally revealed very unsuitable aspects of land acquisition structures and processes that act as an obstacle to achieving the required livelihoods that accrue from the utilization of land among the farmers in the Bawku East District (BED) of Ghana. Findings further revealed that, escalating and ongoing land disputes continue to inhibit the productivity of smallholder farmers mainly due to reduced cultivation, decreased investment, and loss of economic assets. This study recommended that, the Government of Ghana should modify the current land acquisition structures and processes by empowering and funding the Administrator of Stool lands to survey and register all skin, clan and family lands within all the Kusaug Traditional Area; encourage smallholder farmers to adopt and implement any of the 165 marketable technologies developed and successfully profiled in June 2015 by the CSIR Institutes. Furthermore, the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036) be revised, harmonised and consolidated to ensure sustainable land administration and management.