Exploring the opportunities and challenges for women in urban and peri-urban vegetable farming in Ghana: the cases of Tsopoli, Greater Accra region and Fiapre, Sunyani region

In today’s world, agriculture remains essential for the flourishing of many countries, including Ghana, west Africa. This research is focused on the lived challenging experiences of women in the selected urban town of Fiapre in the Sunyani region and Tsopoli, a peri- urban town in Greater Accra region both in Ghana. As a young, educated woman who has explored agriculture before, who has encountered difficulties with it, and who is set out to venture again into vegetable farming in the future, I decided to find out what the whole process to start a vegetable farm encompasses. I was particularly interested in the challenges and opportunities encountered by women and my main research question became: ‘how do women vegetable farmers in Fiapre and Tsopoli areas experience and address challenges they face in terms of access to agricultural resources?’ What I found out became a concern for me, namely that women, who are adaptable and operate major roles in important sectors of every economy like agriculture, are mostly restricted to the marketing of vegetables produce and are unable to be much involved in the process of the cultivation itself. Through the lenses of Gender, Intersectionality and Agrarian Political Economy, my assistants and I interviewed mostly women but also a few men. I found out that farming is perceived in the society to be for men, which explains the ease that comes with their access to resources. It is important to understand the issues of bias in gender inequalities and social norms that interfere with women’s low number and low participation in cultivating vegetable farms. This research also shows that women face less sexist biases in women cooperatives in communities, in community training programmes, in access to credit etc. These finding encourages me to continue on my original impulses, not only to become a vegetable farmer but also to venture into other avenues where I can give support in other areas like giving credit or becoming a supplier of seed among others.