Agrarian transformation in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region: Drivers and outcomes

Abstract

Food and agricultural systems in the global South have undergone recent and significant transformation. Such changes are driven by an array of actors, and alongside social, political and economic forces, including a renewed investment by global development actors following the global agri-food crisis in the mid-2000s. The global agri-food crisis, in particular, is associated with speculations in food and agriculture, alongside the introduction of new modernisation policies and programmesincluding the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Such interventions are often couched as a response to the challenge of feeding the world's growing population, estimated to reach nine billion by 2050. In Africa, an agricultural transformation is also closely tied to initiatives to modernise agriculture, including expanding export-led agricultural development. Turning to Ghana in particular, market-based and export-led agricultural development policies and narratives have expanded since at least the mid-2000s, incorporating new actors, and extending their local level impacts. During this period, dominant agricultural development narratives framed Ghana's agrarian problems as largely technical and supply-side problems, which could be solved by increasing productivity as well as diversifying into production of export crops, thereby addressing poverty, food insecurity and global market access issues. In particular, the promotion of cashew nut production as export diversification has integrated farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region into the global commodity market. These market-based approaches are shaping agricultural practiceswith outcomes that are transforming agriculture in Ghana, particularly the Brong Ahafo Region. With this as context, this thesis adopts a critical political ecology approach to analyse contemporary processes and outcomes of agricultural transformation in Ghana's Brong Ahafo Region. Political ecology was adopted to render transparent the complex political, economic and sociocultural processes across different global and local scales shaping agricultural transformation in the region, often referred to as the 'breadbasket' of Ghana. The research adopts qualitative methods, including interviews, focus group discussions, observation and policy document analysis, to gather in-depth data on farming systems in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Smallholder cashew production and household livelihoods in the transition zone of Ghana

“…The study was conducted in the Bono Region of Ghana, located in the transitional belt which is historically regarded as one of the ‘breadbaskets’ of the country because of the variety of food crops and tree crops produced in the region (Boafo, 2019). In other words, the region supports the production of major crops in Ghana because of the fairly decent climate that the region possesses (Mariwah et al, 2019).…”

“…Besides, recent cocoa production in the region is adversely affected by improper or insufficient application of fungicides and pesticides, planting of low‐yielding varieties, ageing cocoa plants, climatic changes, as well as a ready market for other competing crops such as cashew which involves little preparation after harvest (Peprah et al, 2018). Now, cashew is gaining wide acceptance among smallholder farmers, with the shift related to the increased demand for cashew nuts for export together with the difficulties facing these farmers (i.e., decreased soil fertility, variability in rainfall and temperature patterns, and access to credit), hence the region status of currently being the largest producer of cashew nuts in Ghana (Boafo, 2019; Boafo & Lyons, 2021; Evans et al, 2014). Following this, three communities from three districts were used in the study: Sebreni community (Jaman South district), Duadaso No.…”

“…1 and Nsawkaw communities are predominantly smallholder farmers with a typology of farm sizes of 1–10 ha for small‐scale, 11–50 ha for medium‐scale and over 50 ha for large‐scale farmers. Concerning land tenure systems, lands are held under customary tenure and thus are predominately controlled by indigenes with a few migrants from the northern regions of Ghana (Boafo, 2019; Yaro et al, 2017). Notwithstanding the farming activities, the people from these communities also engage in non‐farm activities and artisanal jobs to supplement their farming activities (Yeboah et al, 2020).…”

“…In 2019, Ghana on the international market contributed about 171,924 mt of nuts to the world production volume, thus signifying the importance attached to cashew production in this part of the world (Akyereko et al, 2022). A lot of cashew production is from farmers in the forest ecological zones where climatic conditions are naturally conducive for cashew including cocoa production (Boafo, 2019). Cashew is gaining wider acceptance among smallholder farmers than cocoa, which hitherto was the most cultivated tree crop in this forest ecological zones driven by multiple factors.…”

“…Cashew is gaining wider acceptance among smallholder farmers than cocoa, which hitherto was the most cultivated tree crop in this forest ecological zones driven by multiple factors. According to Boafo (2019), labour requirements for the harvest and post‐harvest activities related to cashew nuts are less intense compared with cocoa, which requires harvesting, fermentation and drying, including the promotion of cashew production through policy as an income‐generating activity. In other words, cashew production requires little preparation after harvest and thus provides a ready market for Asian processors for export.…”