Abstract

Land ownership has a distinct and profound impact on poverty reduction and wealth creation in developing countries. It increases productivity through access to credit and greater on-land investment for small scale farmers. The duality in State’s law has resulted to small-scale farmers being at logger heads with large-scale investors who claim immunity under state laws .

Large-scale agricultural investments has therefore been viewed by the Cameroonian governments as an opportunity to enhance productivity and economic growth through increased agricultural investment, stimulating the development of increased agricultural investment and making important contributions to Africa’s macro-economy and skilled agriculture.

However this economic policy has detrimental consequences on small scale farmers whose customary right over their ancestral land is taken away from them by big investors. Though earlier research work had been carried out in this area, the researcher identified gaps in the socio-economic implications of large scale land acquisition in our study site that needed to be addressed.

Traditional land tenure application in the North West Region is different from that of other Regions of Cameroon. Furthermore, the relationship between small scale farmers and large scale land owners is peculiar and problematic, and needs to be addressed. The main objective of this research is to examine the socio-economic implications of large scale land acquisition on small-scale farmers in Ndawara Highlands. Ethnographic approach was used for data collection.

Data collected was later classified into themes. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings highlight the socio-economic implications faced by small scale farmers in the study area. The findings of this research could enable government to have a better understanding of the implications of large-scale land acquisition on the socio-economic development of small scale farming communities.

This will enable appropriate measures, policies and strategies to ensure a win-win situation between large scale investors and small-scale farmers maintain social peace and limit inter-tribal disputes. Furthermore, the findings of this research will provide current verifiable data for researchers and other actors in discussions concerning land issues especially at the local level.

The study recommends that measures should be taken to reduce land-related conflicts in the Ngoketunjia Divisions amongst which are: the recognition of the important role of the Fon in land management, the recognition of the right of the local people over ownership and the use of land and the restraining of the rich and politically powerful individuals from illegally displacing villagers from communal land.

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