Land rights, Social capital and investments in sustainable management practices and productivity enhancing inputs in Ghana

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Awudu Abdulai
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Agrarökonomie, Agrarpolitik, Agrarsoziologie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2011 bis 2015
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 193710162

The research project broadly examines the links between tenancy arrangements, social networks and investment in soil conservation and productivity- enhancing measures. A num-ber of studies are undertaken within the scope of the research project to investigate various determinants of adoption and investment in soil conservation measures. The starting point of the analyses is the development of a dynamic theoretical framework that links tenancy ar-rangements, contract duration and investment in soil conservation and productivity-enhancing measures. We then employ data from Ghana to test the predictions from the theoretical model. Other empirical analyses are undertaken to examine the influence of social networks, organic farming and other household characteristics on adoption of soil conservation measures. The empirical findings from the studies generally show the importance of farm-level and house-hold characteristics, as well as tenancy arrangements on adoption and investment in soil con-servation and productivity-enhancing measures. A highlight from the results is the significant impact of tenancy arrangements and contract duration on investment, suggesting that tenure security influences farmers decisions to invest in soil conservation measures. The application for extension of the research grant for another year is justified by the fact that some important issues could not be analyzed within the two-year period. Among other things, the study would examine the impact tenancy arrangements and the time-related characteristics (contract duration and number of previous renewals of the contract) of the tenancy contracts on the optimal soil conservation measures, and investigate the impact of investment on farm productivity.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen