Sharecropping arrangement in the contemporary agricultural economy of Ghana: A study of Techiman North District and Sefwi Wiawso Municipality, Ghana

The desire for plantation farms and the availability of fertile uncultivated lands coupled with the influx of migrant farmers into the plantation frontiers during the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries largely occasioned the emergence of the share cropping mechanism in the then Gold Coast. Using two districts in Ghana, this study examined sharecroppers land access mode in the contemporary agricultural economy of Ghana. Mixed methods research was used in this study and focused on sharecrop-tenants as well as the sharecrop-landlords as the key research respondents. The results show that across the two areas, abunu system of tenancy was the dominant sharecropping arrangement. The benefit share of the landlord has moved from one-third (1/3) per the traditional abusa tenant system to 50% under the modern abunu system for tree crop plantations. The tenant-farmers’ percentage share has, however, declined from 2/3 to ½ under the current abunu system and in some cases the sharing arrangement is restricted to the proceeds and not the land. Again, the tenants now have to make upfront monetary payment in order to access land, which was not the case in the past. The share tenancy arrangement is on an evolutionary trajectory towards equalizing entitlements to proceeds, in a manner that seems to disadvantage the tenant farmers and keep them in the cycle of tenancy. The study underscores the need for further research to fully understand the drivers of these variations and emerging trends of the sharecropping land access dynamics for an informed policy response.

The Insight and the Legacy of the Theory of Share Tenancy

The Theory of Share Tenancy by Steven Cheung, first published as a PhD thesis 50 years ago, was an important watershed study on the economics of contracts. It contained the first formal demonstration of the Coase Theorem, linked the concepts of property rights and transaction costs, laid early foundations for the future economics of contracts, and can even lay claim to originating the idea of a risk/incentive tradeoff in contract design. This essay examines Cheung's key contributions in Share Tenancy, and considers reasons for its somewhat limited legacy outside of China.

The Theory of Share Tenancy and the Old “Good Economics”

What The Theory of Share Tenancy did to share tenancy repeats what Coase did to Pigovian tax. The Theory of Share Tenancy pioneered the empirical study of transaction costs and property rights.

Theory of Share Tenancy after 50 Years

This paper was prepared for "The Theory of Share Tenancy: After 50 Years," a conference organized by The Ronald Coase Center for Property Rights Research at the University of Hong Kong, November 24-26, 2017. The paper first appeared in Chinese as a series of column articles in ifeng.com (凤凰网). The author traces the complex intellectual origins of The Theory of Share Tenancy and an adventurous career that followed.

PERANAN SOCIAL CAPITAL DALAM PEMBANGUNAN EKONOMI

In the development process worldwide, researchers and scholars these days are paying more attention to the significant role of social capital. There is a growing understanding that social capital is one of the determinant factors in the economic development. The importance of social capital as a significant factor of growth has been widely and commonly acknowledged. Social capital refers to the institutions, relationship, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of society’s social intreactions. Social capital however, is not simply the sum of the institutions, which underpain a society; it is also the glue that holds them together. It includes the shared values and rules for social cinduct expressed in personal relationship, trust, and a common sense of “civic” responsibility, that makes society more than a collection of individuals.The formal study on social capital in Indonesia is still very rare. Eventhough the terminology of social capital has not been formally used, several studies on Indonesian villagers have tried to examine types and functions of human relations and cooperation. The Indonesian peasant households still attach great importance to good relations with neighbors and relatives in their community. These relations are expressed into various types of mutual and are commonly known as gotong royong tradition.It will be much more rewarding if the further studies are able to capture and cover each element of social capital dimension in rural Indonesia. Practices of local institutions in rural Indonesia such as social service groups, labor institutions for mutual help, rotational saving groups, traditional social safety net, equalized inheritance system, share tenancy forms, and service of government affairs should be included in the more advance studies.