Meeting the 2030 Agenda: Responsible Consolidation of Ghana's Customary Lands
Kwabena Asiama, Winrich Voss, Rohan Bennett, Jaap Zevenbergen
Land Consolidation on Sub-Saharan Africa’s customary lands have generally failed for various
reasons. However, with the prevalence of land fragmentation as a problem in the past two
decades, there has been a new wave of land consolidation activities in the region. Land
fragmentation on customary lands has two main causes—the nature of the customary land
tenure system, and the somewhat linked agricultural system. Since attempts to increase food
productivity on customary lands have involved fertilisation and mechanisation on the small and
scattered farmlands, these approaches have fallen short of increasing food productivity. Land
tenure security is further low on these lands. This study examines how a responsible land
consolidation measure can be developed for customary lands to contribute to food security and
land tenure security. A design research approach is used to develop a land consolidation
measure for customary lands and reported here. This study concludes that though the land
consolidation strategy developed is significantly able to reduce land fragmentation, both
physical and land tenure, the local customs are an obstruction to the technical processes to
achieve the best form of farmland structures. Hence the developed approach can contribute to
land tenure and food security.
Event: FIG e-Working Week 2021
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