IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v138y2021ics0305750x20304204.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Plantations, women, and food security in Africa: Interrogating the investment pathway towards zero hunger in Cameroon and Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Fonjong, Lotsmart N
  • Gyapong, Adwoa Y

Abstract

In this paper, we critically engage with SDG-2- Target 2.3 and SDG-5 to examine how and why large-scale agricultural land acquisitions modify the social relations of women’s food access. Adopting qualitative methods and from agrarian political economy perspectives, we assess the implications of plantation investments on food security and gender equality in Cameroon and Ghana. The study draws on the impacts of various plantation schemes in Cameroon and Ghana to argue that the current all-encompassing framing of the SDG-2, whereby support for small-scale production appears to co-exist with the promotion of corporate-led agricultural investments, tends to create a vague interpretation of food security, even when capitalist motives override the interests of rural working men and women. In both countries, plantations have been characterised by displacement, reduced food production and competition over land resources in rural contexts where women bear the burden of social reproduction, particularly in subsistence and food provisioning for their households. Restricted access to farmlands hampers petty commodity production, and provokes rural exodus among farming populations in Cameroon who compete with pastoralists for land; and in the Ghana case, where settlers and migrants compete with dispossessed indigenes for arable lands. The study shows the inherent contradictions and tensions within the narratives of sustainable development and projects which are considered as potential pathways to the SDGs. One of such tension areas is between local food security- which is a gendered role for women in West/Central Africa – and the accumulation imperatives of capitalist investors. We iterate that achieving zero hunger requires gender-inclusive land and labour policies that recognise, protect and empower small farmers and women, and create opportunities for local and national food self-sufficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Fonjong, Lotsmart N & Gyapong, Adwoa Y, 2021. "Plantations, women, and food security in Africa: Interrogating the investment pathway towards zero hunger in Cameroon and Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:138:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x20304204
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105293
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X20304204
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105293?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang, 2016. "Quantifying Spillover Effects from Large Land-based Investment: The Case of Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 227-241.
    2. Udry, Christopher, 1996. "Gender, Agricultural Production, and the Theory of the Household," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(5), pages 1010-1046, October.
    3. Adwoa Yeboah Gyapong, 2019. "Land Deals, Wage Labour, and Everyday Politics," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-21, June.
    4. Kennedy, Eileen & Peters, Pauline, 1992. "Household food security and child nutrition: the interaction of income and gender of household head," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1077-1085, August.
    5. Dzodzi Tsikata & Joseph Awetori Yaro, 2014. "When a Good Business Model is Not Enough: Land Transactions and Gendered Livelihood Prospects in Rural Ghana," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 202-226, January.
    6. Gyapong, Adwoa Yeboah, 2020. "How and why large scale agricultural land investments do not create long-term employment benefits: A critique of the ‘state’ of labour regulations in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    7. Graeub, Benjamin E. & Chappell, M. Jahi & Wittman, Hannah & Ledermann, Samuel & Kerr, Rachel Bezner & Gemmill-Herren, Barbara, 2016. "The State of Family Farms in the World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-15.
    8. Cheryl Doss & Gale Summerfield & Dzodzi Tsikata, 2014. "Land, Gender, and Food Security," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mechiche-Alami, Altaaf & Yagoubi, Jihad & Nicholas, Kimberly A., 2021. "Agricultural land acquisitions unlikely to address the food security needs of African countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Isaac Doku & Andrew Phiri, 2022. "Climate finance and hunger among non-annex-1 parties: a lens on Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 14(4), pages 380-398.
    3. Migliavacca, Milena & Patel, Ritesh & Paltrinieri, Andrea & Goodell, John W., 2022. "Mapping impact investing: A bibliometric analysis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Nchanji, Eileen Bogweh & Chagomoka, Takemore & Bellwood-Howard, Imogen & Drescher, Axel & Schareika, Nikolaus & Schlesinger, Johannes, 2023. "Land tenure, food security, gender and urbanization in Northern Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nanhthavong, Vong & Bieri, Sabin & Nguyen, Anh-Thu & Hett, Cornelia & Epprecht, Michael, 2022. "Proletarianization and gateways to precarization in the context of land-based investments for agricultural commercialization in Lao PDR," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Gyapong, Adwoa Yeboah, 2020. "How and why large scale agricultural land investments do not create long-term employment benefits: A critique of the ‘state’ of labour regulations in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Torres Franco, Nicolás Arturo & Dávalos, Eleonora & Morales, Leonardo Fabio, 2021. "Heterogeneous Effects of Agricultural Technical Assistance in Colombia," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 459-481, November.
    4. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "Does female empowerment promote economic development?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 309-343, December.
    5. Tina D. Beuchelt & Rafaël Schneider & Liliana Gamba, 2022. "Integrating the right to food in sustainability standards: A theory of change to move global supply chains from responsibilities to impacts," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 1864-1889, December.
    6. Abdul-Hanan Abdallah & Michael Ayamga & Joseph Agebase Awuni, 2023. "Large-Scale Land Acquisition and Household Farm Investment in Northern Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-36, March.
    7. Castet, Antoine, 2024. "The impact of large-scale land acquisitions on child food insecurity in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    8. Baumert, Sophia & Fisher, Janet & Ryan, Casey & Woollen, Emily & Vollmer, Frank & Artur, Luis & Zorrilla-Miras, Pedro & Mahamane, Mansour, 2019. "Forgone opportunities of large-scale agricultural investment: A comparison of three models of soya production in Central Mozambique," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    9. Koen Dekeyser & Lise Korsten & Lorenzo Fioramonti, 2018. "Food sovereignty: shifting debates on democratic food governance," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(1), pages 223-233, February.
    10. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2022. "Institutional determinants of large land-based investments’ performance in Zambia: Does title enhance productivity and structural transformation?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    11. Adams, Timothy & Gerber, Jean-David & Amacker, Michèle, 2019. "Constraints and opportunities in gender relations: Sugarcane outgrower schemes in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 282-294.
    12. Burrone, Sara & Giannelli, Gianna Claudia, 2023. "Do Households Where Women Own Land Fare Better for Food Security? Evidence for Tanzania," IZA Discussion Papers 16382, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang, 2018. "Assessing the long-term performance of large-scale land transfers: Challenges and opportunities in Malawi’s estate sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 281-296.
    14. Mechiche-Alami, Altaaf & Yagoubi, Jihad & Nicholas, Kimberly A., 2021. "Agricultural land acquisitions unlikely to address the food security needs of African countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    15. Andrews, Nathan, 2018. "Land versus livelihoods: Community perspectives on dispossession and marginalization in Ghana's mining sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 240-249.
    16. Rao, Nitya, 2017. "Assets, Agency and Legitimacy: Towards a Relational Understanding of Gender Equality Policy and Practice," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 43-54.
    17. Astrid Sneyers & Anneleen Vandeplas, 2013. "Girl Power in Agricultural Production: How Much Does it Yield? A Case-Study on the Dairy Sector in India," Working Papers id:5562, eSocialSciences.
    18. Mochebelele, Motsamai T. & Winter-Nelson, Alex, 2000. "Migrant Labor and Farm Technical Efficiency in Lesotho," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 143-153, January.
    19. Luis Bauluz & Yajna Govind & Filip Novokmet, 2020. "Global Land Inequality," PSE Working Papers halshs-03022318, HAL.
    20. Maertens, Miet & Verhofstadt, Ellen, 2013. "Horticultural exports, female wage employment and primary school enrolment: Theory and evidence from Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 118-131.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:138:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x20304204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.