Smallholder Farmers' Perceptions of the Link Between Agricultural Land Tenure and Investment in Irrigation Infrastructure in the Volta Region of Ghana
Michael Kossivi Tamekloe
*
Graduate School of Science and Technology, University of Tsukuba, Japan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced negative consequences of poor access to irrigation. Past studies attributed this problem to a complicated land tenure system and high installation and/or maintenance costs. Despite the recognized benefits of land ownership and irrigation infrastructure for agricultural productivity, little is known about why smallholder farmers in Ghana’s Volta region, an ecological zone with high irrigation potential, fail to invest in these as viable long-term strategies. The influence of farmland ownership and other socio-economic factors on farmers’ decisions to invest in irrigation infrastructure remains poorly understood. This study examines how farmland ownership affects smallholder farmers’ decisions to invest in irrigation infrastructure, alongside other factors influencing farmers’ decisions to invest in such infrastructure in Ghana’s Volta Region. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 282 randomly sampled smallholder farmers from the South and North Tongu districts between January 8 and February 28, 2024. The questions focused on the relationship between farmland ownership and smallholder farmers’ investment decisions in irrigation development. Likert scale questions were asked to gauge farmers’ perspectives about farmland ownership influence and their decision-making in investing in irrigation infrastructure. A correlation analysis was conducted on the respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics to identify factors influencing farmers’ decisions to invest in irrigation infrastructure. The results indicated that respondents (76%) were discouraged from investing in irrigation infrastructure because they did not own the farmlands. These lands were often disputed by traditional authorities and families due to overlapping land rights and unclear boundaries, an issue that extends beyond the traditional land tenure system, as identified by past studies. Without securing rights to the land, smallholders fear losing their investments when landowners reclaim it. The results showed that age, farm size, and household income had positive and statistically significant correlations with farmers’ investment decision in irrigation infrastructure. In contrast, gender had a negative and statistically significant association with investment in irrigation infrastructure. The pseudo R² value of 0.278 indicated that the model was a good fit (P < 0.001). A best-fit model shows how well the factors in the study explain farmers’ decisions to invest in irrigation. With a pseudo R² value of 0.278, the model explains about 27.8% of the variation in farmers’ investment behavior, which is a good level for socio-economic data. Financial constraints, lack of formal land documents, and high costs of expanding irrigation across fragmented plots were identified as major disincentives to farmers investing in irrigation infrastructure. The findings of this study contribute further insights into farmland ownership and the irrigation investment decisions of smallholder farmers, with important implications for policymaking and government interventions in irrigation development.
Keywords: Smallholder farmers, farmland ownership, irrigation infrastructure, investment, Ghana