It said community members desirous of owning land do not have the capacity to pay for these "invaluable services" from the various offices of the Commission largely to due to financial constraints.

Dr Felicia Esinam Pufaa, BUSAC Fund Monitor for Upper West Region, made the call during a stakeholder meeting held at Wa, to drum home the need for landlords to release lands to women for farming activities.

She said women's access to lands is a priority and would improve their economic status and impact positively on their families if the myriad of bottlenecks were eased.

"BUSAC wants to improve the work of private sector organisations and access to lands by women is one of the key areas of our work," she said: "We want to see that women are being given the lands and then they are using it and we are seeing the positive effect on the families".

Dr. John Y. Akparep, the BUSAC Fund Consultant, wondered why women in northern Ghana did not have access to productive farmlands as compared to their counterparts in the southern sector.

He said that access to fertile lands by women for farming would help transform their lives and those of many families.

"We have noticed the difficulties associated with access to productive farm lands by women in the northern part of the country and the Nadowli-Kaleo area is not an exception", Dr Akparep said.

He said BUSAC Fund is ready to support women with resources including capital to improve their farming activities should access to productive farmlands be made available to them.

Mr Issah Mohammed, the Upper West Regional Lands Officer, entreated land owners to register their lands for specific projects such as farming for preservation.

He said  there is the need for land owners to appreciate the importance of women to have access to farmlands for overall economic and agricultural development of the country.

Madam Bidi Mwinyerah Samata, the Leader for the Unity and Progressive Women Farmers' Cooperative Society in the Nadowli/Kaleo District, said women possessed the ability to support their husbands in caring for their families and education of children and therefore needed to be given maximum assistance.

She complained about lack of access to productive farmlands for women groups and added that this affected their abilities to support their families negatively.