As the city grows, where do the farmers go? Understanding Peri-urbanization and food systems in Ghana - Evidence from the Tamale Metropolis

Abstract

The world continues to battle food insecurity due to persisting constraints with food production, distribution, storage, processing, consumption and waste management. The recent global food crisis redirected investment in new paradigms of food research to find innovative strategies of food production including urban and peri-urban agriculture. In the urbanised regions of Ghana, uncontrolled urbanisation and noncompliance with land use plans have further worsened the potentials for food production in the urban corridors. The effectiveness of urban food systems depends on efficient spatial and infrastructure planning mechanisms for spatial allocation to various land uses including green and agricultural zones. Using qualitative data and narratives, this paper studied urban farmers' production systems in the Tamale Metropolis in Ghana. The study observed that as urbanisation increases, farmers are being pushed unto less favourable locations, farther villages or restricted to unauthorised public spaces in order to continue production. The absence of urban green belts reduces farming to flood plains and along public drains where wastewater is used for irrigation. The existing customary land ownership system makes it extremely difficult for urban planning institutions to preserve green spaces due to pressure from landowners for re-zoning into urban land infrastructure. To protect urban and peri-urban agricultural lands, there is the need for an urban agricultural policy and the mapping potential production areas.

Peri-urban transformation and shared natural resources: the case of shea trees depletion and livelihood in Wa municipality, Northwestern Ghana

“…But the strong emphasis in our findings which sets it apart from previous studies is on the mechanisms which regulate land use, access and management of an important resource such as shea tree, something which is rarely discussed in the literature on peri-urban transformation in Ghana. Past studies in peri-urban areas have largely concentrated on tenure security and land management (Barry & Danso, 2014;Gough & Yankson, 2000;Kasanga and Kotey, 2001), urbanization and agricultural production (Allen, Apsan Frediani, & Wood Hill, 2014;Kuusaana & Eledi, 2015;McGregor, Adam-Bradford, Thompson, & Simon, 2011) and urban land use planning (Boamah, Gyimah, & Bediako, 2012;Cobbinah and Amoako, 2014). This study therefore closes this gap by showing how peri-urbanization, land tenure and security and those whose livelihoods depend on shea trees are interwoven as such advancing new knowledge for managing natural resources and sustainable livelihoods in rapidly urbanizing cities.…”

“…It has resulted in massive expansions not only of large cities such as Accra, Kumasi and Tamale (Doan & Oduro, 2012;Ghana Statistical Service, 2012) but also of small cities such as Wa. The effects have been mixed as peri-urbanization seems to present both opportunities and damaging effects on ecosystems and livelihoods in these zones (Kasanga & Kotey, 2001;Kuusaana & Eledi, 2015). While shea trees form an important component of livelihoods in northern Ghana and in West Africa (Fortmann, 1985;Poudyal, 2011;Rousseau, Gautier, & Wardell, 2017) much of the studies on shea trees has concentrated on rural communities with little attention given to it in rapidly urbanizing cities.…”

The Social Network of Urban Agriculture

“…On a world-wide basis, post-harvest losses of durable crops are estimated at 10%, but in the global south, losses of more than 20% are frequently encountered due to poor storage facilities among urban farmers (Kuusaana & Eledi 2015;Roy 2005). In most cities in the global south including PHC, where UA is practiced, the post-harvest storage of some perishable crops and traditional methods of food preservation are used when they have leftovers from feeding and sales.…”

Urban Governance in Africa: An Overview

“…While some scholars see urban agriculture as having an important role to play in poverty reduction and food security (e.g. Lee-Smith, 2010), most African national and local governments are intolerant of urban agriculture, seeing it as incompatible with their 'modernist' visions of what cities should look like (Kuusaana and Eledi, 2015;Simatele and Binns, 2008;Tong, 2010), viewing it as a rural activity 'whose practice within the city boundaries is inappropriate and detracts from the modern image of the city' (Simatele and Binns, 2008, 2). In African cities experiencing steep economic decline, however, there has been a rapid increase in levels of participation in urban agriculture, and organisations of urban farmers can play an important role in promoting and supporting urban agriculture (Schmidt et al, 2015).…”