Joseph Awetori Yaro

When a Good Business Model is Not Enough: Land Transactions and Gendered Livelihood Prospects in Rural Ghana

Recent large-scale commercial agriculture projects in developing countries have raised concerns about the effects on natural resource-based livelihood activities of local people. A significant weakness in the emerging literature is the lack of a gender perspective on implications for agrarian livelihoods. This article explores the gendered aspects of land transactions on livelihood prospects in the Northern Region of Ghana. Drawing on qualitative research from two commercial agriculture projects, the article examines how pre-existing gender inequalities in agrarian production systems, as well as gender biases in project design, are implicated in post-project livelihood activities. The article concludes that a good business model of a land deal, even one that includes local communities in production and profit sharing, is not sufficient to protect womens livelihood prospects if projects ignore pre-existing gender inequalities and biases, which limit access to opportunities.

Theorizing food insecurity: building a livelihood vulnerability framework for researching food insecurity

Food insecurity and increasing impoverishment of the masses in developing countries constitute a challenge for social scientists, whose theories have tried to catch up with the enormous challenges of diversity, dynamism and the impacts of the forces of‘glocalisation’. This article reviews the efforts in the social sciences towards understanding food insecurity and suggests a framework incorporating dynamism and diversity in rural communities in the research process. Structural changes affecting peasant economies and peasant responses make existing general theories inappropriate without a contextual treatment. Insights from existing theories are used to construct a livelihood vulnerability framework for researching and understanding food insecurity in rural areas.

The perception of and adaptation to climate variability/change in Ghana by small-scale and commercial farmers

Effective adaptation to climate change and variability is contingent on the perceptions of farmers and the ability of policy makers to merge these with scientific knowledge systems. The study examined the differentiated knowledge, experiences and perceptions of small traditional farmers and modern commercial farmers and their adaptation influences using qualitative interviews. Farmers generally have very clear ideas of the trends in the parameters of climate change as they relate to farm productivity and other livelihoods. Commercial farmers had a better understanding of the science of climate change, but small farmers presented a localised explanation of observed climate changes. Non-climate factors influenced adaptation of both groups of farmers. The capacities of small farmers are lower than their commercial counterparts, but the risks associated with commercial farming are much higher owing to higher investments in uncertain physical and economic conditions. Differentiated policies are needed at climate proofing the investments and efforts of farmers.

Local institutions and adaptive capacity to climate change/variability in the northern savannah of Ghana

Ghana faces several challenges from climate change/variability. Local institutions provide the framework within which idiosyncratic capacities of local people can be exercised in their adaptation to climate change. This paper examines the importance of formal and informal institutions for building adaptive capacity. Both formal and informal institutions play different but complementary roles in enabling or preventing the ability to cope, benefit and adapt to climate change. Responses to climate change in northern Ghana are dependent on the nature of institutions that grant people access to resources; define their exposure to climate threats; and dictate the rate of recovery from debilitating disasters. The effectiveness of institutions is constrained by their limited spatial and temporal reach, limited financial and human resources, and sometimes the faulty strategy designs and implementation procedures. Traditional institutions may malfunction when modern interpretations of tradition are in the interests of custodians of tradition rather than the ordinary poor. We emphasize the need for synergy between institutions that support adaptive capacities of the poor, and request corrective measures to institutions that lead to maladaptation.

RE‐INVENTING TRADITIONAL LAND TENURE IN THE ERA OF LAND COMMODITIZATION: SOME CONSEQUENCES IN PERIURBAN NORTHERN GHANA

Abstract. In northern Ghana periurban areas are encroaching on rural areas and agricultural land ends up being sold for residential purposes mainly by chiefs and “earth” priests. The changing customary land tenure systems have generated a state of uncertainty and tension as the title and responsibilities of titleholders are subject to the interpretation by those who administer custom. Increasing commodification is taking place that benefits an emerging political‐traditional and economic elite. The centralized systems restrict the benefits of the commoditization process mainly to chiefs and their collaborators, whiles acephalous systems allow more space for objections and struggles by those whose land is expropriated. Neoliberal development policies have shaped the commodification of land and entrenched existing socio‐economic inequalities that marginalize the poor who are unable to seize the opportunities of the emerging urban economy.

Exploring the autonomous adaptation strategies to climate change and climate variability in selected villages in the rural northern savannah zone of Ghana

Evidence abounds attesting to changes in the global climate. In Ghana, climate change and climate variability have brought several exposure-sensitivities on different people and at different times. Due to the multiplicity of climate change and climate variability effects, adaptation strategies invariably could be influenced by several factors. This paper assesses the adoption of adaptation strategies in the rural northern savannah zone of Ghana as a result of climate change and variability. Using two villages each from Savelugu Nanton, West Mamprusi and Kassena Nankana East Districts, which are slightly different as case studies, the paper unearthed panoply of varied adaptation strategies in each of them including intensification of irrigation; integration of livestock production; changes in tillage practices; fertiliser application on farms; shift from agriculture to non-farm jobs; seasonal migration and purchase of drought insurance for maize. The results indicate that the relativity in adoption and utilisation of the different adaptive strategies are interlinked with geographical, social, economic, institutional and political factors and processes in the villages. The findings drum home the essentiality of location-specific planned adaptation strategies for climate change through a bottom-up approach, in order to ensure their effectiveness and sustainability.

Savannah fires and local resistance to transnational land deals: the case of organic mango farming in Dipale, northern Ghana

Recent interest in investments in land in Africa targets the supposed ‘abundant and wasting’ fire-prone savannah woodlands. Outgrower models are becoming the recommended business model for transnational investments as they are argued to guarantee a win–win outcome for both trans-national companies and local farmers. Using qualitative interviews in the village of Dipale, we investigate one such project, the Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC). All outgrowers lost their investments to savannah fires and consequently abandoned or converted the mango farms into food crop farms. The political ecology of the area, manifested in the human-environmental conditions and land management practices confounded the business model of land acquisitions thus threatening their profitability for the investors and reducing their contribution to local livelihood outcomes. The savannah fires represent an instrumentalized form of local resistance against the expropriation of their livelihood resources without their full cooperation and consent.

Agricultural commercialisation models, agrarian dynamics and local development in Ghana

The renewed commitment of African states to modernising agriculture has reignited longstanding debates about different models of agricultural commercialisation. Which forms of commercialisation models will reduce land dispossession and the impoverishment of smallholders, and transform smallholder agriculture and the wider economy? Of the three broad models of agriculture commercialisation in this debate – plantation, contract farming and medium-scale commercial farming – contract farming has been identified as central to the future of Africa’s commercial agriculture. This paper provides empirical evidence from Ghana on the impacts of these three models on land, labour/employment, livelihoods and local economic linkages. Our findings show that the plantation and the commercial farming areas have highly commercialised land relations, land scarcity and high land prices, compared to the outgrower area where traditional systems of accessing land still dominate, enabling families to produce their own food crops while also diversifying into wage labour and other activities. Food insecurity was highest in the plantation area followed by the commercial area, but lowest in the outgrower area. Here, semi-proletarianised seasonal workers combine self-provisioning from their own farms with wages, and this results in better livelihood outcomes than for permanent workers in plantations and commercial farms. Due to the processing units in the plantation and the outgrower models, they provided more employment. However, the casualisation of labour and gender discrimination in employment and access to land occur in all three cases. All three models generated strong economic linkages mainly because they combined attributes such as processing, provided markets for nearby farmers, induced state infrastructural development and diffused technology in competitive ways. The effects of the models on household and local development are coproduced by their interaction with pre-existing conditions and wider national economic structures.

Social Networks, Migration Trajectories and Livelihood Strategies of Migrant Domestic and Construction Workers in Accra, Ghana:

Recent studies indicate that poor migrants are more likely to depend on social capital among other resources for livelihoods in host communities. Relying on insights from the social networks theory and using qualitative data from two migrant sending regions and one migrant destination area in Ghana, this paper examines the role and effects of networks of social capital on migration processes and livelihood strategies of migrants in the construction and domestic work sectors in Accra, Ghana. The paper argues that different categories of migrants fashion out specific migration strategies based on a complex intersection of social networks, which is shaped by specific contexts. Therefore the various ways in which migrants access, maintain and construct different types of networks in varied social locations and with diverse people needs to be interrogated in a more nuanced way and their policy implications addressed.

Adaptation to Climate Change and Variability in Rural West Africa

The status of knowledge on observed and projected climate change is regularly summarized in the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The latest IPCC report (2013) concludes that Africa as a whole is one of the most vulnerable continents due to its high exposure and low adaptive capacity. Here, the major conclusions of the report for Western Africa are summarized. Although there are still large gaps in the available data, evidence of warming over land regions across Africa, consistent with anthropogenic climate change, has increased. Temperature projections over West Africa for the end of the 21st century from global climate simulation range between 3 and 6 °C above the late 20th century baseline depending on the emission scenario. A similar range is produced with regional climate models that are used to downscale global climate simulations. For some regions, unprecedented climates are projected to occur at around 2040. Important progress has been made in the understanding of West African weather systems during the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA; phase 1: 2002–2010, phase 2: 2010–2020) project. For many processes in ecology, agriculture or hydrology, precipitation is one of the most important parameters. In addition to the total precipitation, the onset of the rainy season is of special interest for agriculture. In the past a shift of the rainy season was discussed, but currently a shift cannot be observed for West Africa. However, the length of the Sahelian rainy season reveals an increasing trend of 2–3 days per decade, with a drier phase within. Since the 1950s annual precipitation has tended to decrease in western and eastern parts of the Sahel region, with a very dry period in the 70s and 80s and a slight increase of precipitation afterwards, until today. However, climate projections show a slight increase of total precipitation and a longer rainy season with a drier phase within. J.O. Riede (&) R. Posada F. Kaspar Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Climate Monitoring, 63067 Offenbach, Germany e-mail: Jens-Olaf.Riede@dwd.de A.H. Fink Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany