SOCIO-CULTURAL BARRIERS TO WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN YAM CULTIVATION IN SANG, GHANA

Abstract

Agriculture is the main stay of Ghana and women form a core group of people in that sector. According to Duncan (2004), about 55% of Ghana's total population is engaged in agriculture and about 70% of women in Ghana are into food production. Despite the leading role of women in agricultural sector, they are limited in a number of ways which hinder their progress. These limitations are borne from the fact that they are women, because their counterpart men do not suffer the same challenges. What that therefore means is that apart from the general challenges that both women and men face in agriculture, women uniquely face some challenges because they are women. However, the implications of their limitedness in agricultural activities even though have direct consequences on them, they transcend to other members of the society such as men, children and in fact their families, communities and Ghana as a whole This study based on the intersection between a people's culture and their engagement in economic activities exploring the non-engagement of women in yam cultivation in Sang, one of the agricultural activities in the northern region of Ghana. This research seeks to examine using Sang community as an exemplar to finding out the core reasons that prevent women from engaging in yam production. The researcher specifically employed the phenomenological approach of a qualitative design as the means of exploring participants' experiences of engaging in yam cultivation in Sang, a main cash crop in northern region. Some of the factors from the research militating against women in to yam cultivation include; gender division of crop cultivation in Sang, gender division on roles on the farm and land acquisition and yam cultivation in Sang