Gertrude Dzifa Torvikey holds MPhil Migration Studies and BA French from the University of Ghana and KNUST respectively. She worked as Teaching Assistant at the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy, University of Ghana and as researcher on several projects. Her research interests are agrarian livelihoods, gender and labour migrations.

Ph.D Thesis Topic: Land Commercialization, Gender and Food Security: A study of Caltech’s Agriculture Investment at Hodzo in the Volta Region of Ghana.

Agro-commercialisation is recommended by policy makers and development partners as a tool for enhancing rural livelihoods in Africa. In Ghana, current agriculture policies favour large scale agriculture leading to the increasing pace of large scale land acquisitions in rural areas amidst concerns for household food security implications. It is argued that this process will not compete with food crop production which is dominated by women. Yet, the discourse ignores gendered differences in natural resource access and how new ones can be created. Another dimension is how shifts in time allocation by men and women between own production and employment in the company could affect household food security. It is within these broader discussions that this study examines in what ways Caltech’s investment in cassava at Hodzo affects women’s and men’s resource access and use and its implication for household food security. The study will provide policy makers with empirical evidence establishing links between gendered impacts of land commercialization and food security from which lessons could be drawn for policy formulation.