Land registration does not always translate into increases in agricultural investments or credit taking. When dealing with peri-urban areas, land values often increase and can lead to off-farm labor, land sales and land consolidation. In Ghana, the Agriculture Project expected to increase access to commercial agricultural land and improved tenure while increasing agricultural productivity. Instead, households increased off farm labor while decreasing agricultural labor. This was accompanied by only a small reduction in agricultural production and no changes to agricultural productivity. This result may partially be due to the program area’s location in a peri-urban area on the outskirts of Accra rather than a remote rural farm area. In addition to the compact’s road construction, there were additional existing roads. With urbanization and better transportation links, land values rose in peri-urban areas. Households consolidated land into larger owned parcels (away from sharecropping) and moved from farm to off farm labor. Anecdotal evidence pointed to people establishing commercial businesses and small shops instead of continuing small gardens/farms. MCC should consider land tenure effects on labor, as well as the potential for households consolidating land.
Lesson Learned