The nexus of land grabbing and livelihood of farming households in Ghana

This study examined the effects of land grabbing on the livelihood of smallholder farming households in Ghana using the Livelihood Effect Index. A structured questionnaire was administered to 560 randomly selected farming households across six regions of Ghana. Analysis of variance was conducted to determine the significance difference in the effects among farming households in the regions and among the livelihood indicators. The empirical results revealed that land grabbing has a significant negative effect on the livelihood of smallholder farming households. Results of the LEI indicate that financial capacity and natural resource of smallholder farming households are the most affected livelihood indicators for the smallholder farming households due to land grabbing activities. Also, the Brong Ahafo region had the highest LEI (0.61), indicating that it is the most affected region by land grabbing. Intervention programmes in the affected regions should be tailored towards strengthening the financial capacity of farming households to minimize the effect of land grabbing on the livelihoods of the smallholders.