“Agriculture is widely promoted as a pathway to poverty reduction, food security, and economic transformation in Ghana and across the Global South. Yet, despite decades of reform, agricultural development continues to generate uneven and contradictory outcomes,” says Bernard Ekumah.
Within his thesis, he analyses Ghana’s agricultural development trajectory as an empirically rich case through which to interrogate these contradictions. Although smallholder farmers produce the majority of Ghana’s food, they remain constrained by insecure land access, uneven market relations, ecological vulnerability, and limited political voice.
Combining policy analysis with surveys, interviews and focus group discussion with different actors working within the agricultural sector; Bernard identifies inherent contradictions in many of the state supported neoliberal-productivist policies: contradictions that result in smallholder farmers receiving very little benefit from the policies.
One such contradiction focuses on gender equality. Different policies aim to support female farmers, yet many cannot access these supports, since traditionally men are landowners in Ghana: meaning that women are excluded from these interventions.
Another example is policies aiming to develop agriculture through market-driven approaches, but ignoring how many smallholder farmers struggle to commercialise their livelihoods, often due to weak market linkages and inadequate infrastructure such as poor road networks, storage and post-harvest facilities, and limited access to transport and structured markets. Tensions are also apparent in how long-term ambitions to transition agriculture towards sustainability are undermined by policies aiming to increase yield and productivity through using chemically intensive agricultural practices.
“For agricultural policies to achieve their stated goals, we need to address the deeper structural contradictions within Ghana’s agrarian development model, not just implementation gaps. This includes issues such as insecure land access, patriarchal land relations, and infrastructural deficits that limit how smallholders can benefit from market participation. At present, many smallholders remain structurally marginalised despite being central to Ghana’s food system,” says Bernard Ekumah.
Broader development paradigm for agriculture
Another important finding in his thesis is that agricultural development in Ghana needs to be reframed beyond its current neoliberal-productivist paradigm, a paradigm shaped not only by the Ghanaian state but also by donor agendas, agribusiness interests, and market-oriented development models.
“This focus on productivity, commercialisation and growth drives many of the contradictions within agricultural policy. Policies may promise inclusion, sustainability and transformation, but they often rely on mechanisms that favour already-capitalised actors and leave many smallholders constrained by insecure land access, weak market relations, and limited political voice. It also obscures how smallholder farmers and their organisations can act as political actors in shaping alternative agrarian futures.”
Farmers are turning to collective action
Through his research, he has further mapped how smallholder farmers are turning to collective action in response to uneven agricultural development, which often benefits local elites and political actors more than farmers themselves.
Supporting this politicisation, he sees as key for building a sustainable and equitable agricultural sector in Ghana. Recognising how farmer organisations are taking collective action is a first step. Until now, these associations have mostly been seen as vehicles for training delivery or as platforms for welfare and economic claims within academic literature and practice.
Bernard Ekumah identifies how many smallholder farmers are now pushing back on neoliberal policies to fight for food sovereignty and more sustainable agricultural practices such as agroecological farming – which applies ecological principles to food production.
According to Bernard Ekumah, such farming practices could present viable alternatives to reduce food poverty and advance sustainability and gender equality. Yet they would require training, investment, and capacity building, as well as state engagement with donor organisations on how agriculture is funded in Ghana.
“For agricultural development to benefit all of Ghana, smallholder farmers need to be involved in the formulation and implementation of policies that look beyond mere income and yields. A broader approach can also support large-scale agriculture to become more sustainable.”
Contested future for agricultural development
Yet the path towards more inclusive and broad agricultural policies will not be straightforward, Bernard Ekumah emphasises. His research underscores how the future of agricultural development is more contested than being a mere technical issue of how to increase yields and commercial gain from harvests.
“Within Ghana, I believe we will see further struggles between smallholder farmer groups, the state and other actors; struggles that will centre on challenging current neoliberalist paradigms and on achieving legitimacy for other alternatives.”
