The nexus between land acquisition and household livelihoods in the Northern region of Ghana

It is an undeniable fact that large scale land acquisition for agricultural production and urban development in Ghana is on the upsurge. The receiving end of the effect of land acquisition on household livelihoods are those living on or proximal to the acquired lands. Using primary data collected from four districts in the northern region of Ghana, this study estimated household livelihood security (HLS) index for households living in communities with and without large scale land acquisition. HLS index for the two groups were estimated using household livelihood framework. Welch’s t-test was used to test the hypothesis that communities without land acquisition have greater HLS index than their counterparts in communities with land acquisition. Also, conditional recursive mixed-process (CMP) was used to estimate the effects of large scale land acquisition on HLS index. The findings evinced that food security index, economic security index, sanitation security index, water security index, health security index, shelter security index and social security index for households living in communities without land acquisition is significantly higher than their counterparts in communities with land acquisition. The results also revealed that land acquisition has significant negative effects on the livelihood of households. It is therefore recommended that pragmatic steps should be taken to sensitize the release of land by allodial land title holders to buyers. Allodial title holders of land should pay appropriate and reasonable compensation to usufruct title holders of land to minimise the effects of land acquisition on household livelihoods. Also, compensation or alternative employment should be provided to the community members for loss of land-based activities and livelihoods.