Migration, gender, and inequities in agrarian service access in Northern Ghana

Migration has long shaped agrarian livelihoods in Northern Ghana, where north–south mobility is a key strategy for managing environmental risk, economic precarity, and uneven development. Although previous studies show that migrant households often benefit from remittances and improved agricultural investment, less is known about how migration reshapes who gains access to agricultural services and under what structural conditions. Drawing on a mixed-methods study of 2107 agrarian households and 56 qualitative interviews and focus group discussions in the Upper West and Savannah regions, this paper examines how migration intersects with gender relations, regional inequalities, and institutional arrangements to structure access to agricultural services. Binary logistic regression and thematic analysis reveal that migrant households are more likely to access improved seeds, fertilizer, and markets, but these advantages are unevenly distributed. Women’s agricultural responsibilities increase in the context of male outmigration, yet persistent gendered barriers to extension services, credit, and market participation remain. Framed through a feminist political ecology lens, the study demonstrates that migration reorganizes rather than resolves agrarian inequality. The paper advances debates on migration and rural transformation in Northern Ghana by moving beyond remittance-centered explanations to show how mobility reproduces differentiated access to agricultural services across gender, household, and region.