**6.3 Community response to the phenomenon of LSLA by local investors**

There has been diverse reactions from members of the community to the phenomenon as shown in other areas in the country; from youths, traditional rulers/ chiefs, elites, human rights activists. There have been some responses from women's secret society as well. There is evidence that the land rights of women are threatened by the privatization and commoditization of land. Women are however responding to the limitations on land by accessing land through church membership and NGOsupported cooperatives [26, 27]. On the other hand, in some cases, women have also been reported to access land and improve their tenure security by way of resistance to some cases of land deals.

Some examples of these women's secret society include: the takembeng, fombuen and Anlu. I wish to reiterate here that these women's secret society in this part of the country can be seen as a base of power and agency for women. These secret societies have in the past been used as mechanisms for resistance and have been instrumental in safeguarding women's voice and access to resources especially access to farm land [40, 41].

The rush for land by local grabbers has taken over huge portions of farm land from farmers. The villagers especially women are of the opinion that the land grabs and rampant purchase of land has caused a reduction in cultivable land used by women for subsistence food crop production. Meanwhile, the villagers in general and women farmers in particular have been displaced from their farm lands making them to relocate further into the villages in search of new and free patches of cultivable land. This also meant that women farmers had to trek long distances or incur additional costs to travel to their farms. In addition, farmers are bound to change farms and pieces of land cultivated given that land becomes scarcer and getting a piece of cultivable land has become more difficult. Given that women farmers have relocated to new pieces of farmland, these are more likely to be abandoned land which is less productive with lower yields justifying one of the reasons for moving and changing plots of farmland. On the other hand, women's limited and lack of ownership rights to land also accounts for limitations and challenges of getting permanent farm land for the production of food crops either for subsistence or sale. According to evidence from the FGDs, some women farmers observe that they are bound to move further into the hinterlands

looking for cultivable land in part to avoid land grabbers in case they are in need and in search for more land to purchase. This only confirms the difficulty for women to access farmland given the presence of agricultural plantations on the one hand and the associated effects of a fall and reductions in the production and availability of food crops for household consumption.
