Increasing and competing demands on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa mean that policy and investment decisions become more complex. Despite growing consensus on the need for sustainable agricultural ...intensification, there is limited agreement on how to achieve this in practice. Governments and societies face uncertainty and complex choices. This paper explores the potential of Multi-Stakeholder, Social Learning (MSL) approaches, facilitated by National Learning Alliances (NLAs), to improve policy and investment decisions. Comparative evidence from a donor-supported research and learning programme in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia is used in a theory-based evaluation approach to assess the contribution of the NLAs to capacity and practice change amongst individuals, networks and senior decision-makers. Ten outcome cases are explored, including their contribution to systemic changes in the governance of evidence. Key lessons included: the value to decision-makers of engaging with informal networks; importance of combining dialogue, deliberation and experiential learning; the need to create safe spaces in national level MSL processes; the demanding combination of facilitation skills and commitment; and appropriately flexible support. This suggests a need not only for the production of quality research, but crucially support for MSL as a means of contributing to the good governance of evidence and sustainable change.
The extent of physical and economic postharvest losses at different stages of cassava value chains has been estimated in four countries that differ considerably in the way cassava is cultivated, ...processed and consumed and in the relationships and linkages among the value chain actors. Ghana incurs by far the highest losses because a high proportion of roots reach the consumers in the fresh form. Most losses occur at the last stage of the value chain. In Nigeria and Vietnam processors incur most of the losses while in Thailand most losses occur during harvesting. Poorer countries incur higher losses despite their capacity to absorb sub-standard products (therefore transforming part of the physical losses into economic losses) and less strict buyer standards. In monetary terms the impact of losses is particularly severe in Ghana and estimated at about half a billion US dollar per annum while in the other countries it is at the most about USD 50 million. This comparison shows that there are no “one-size-fits-all" solutions for addressing postharvest losses but rather these must be tailor-made to the specific characteristics of the different value chains.
The objective of this study was to examine the effect of global-local interactions on food production and consumption in Ghana, and identify possible local solutions. Primary data were collected ...using a combination of quantitative-qualitative methods, which included focus group discussions and one-on-one interviews. Approximately 450 household heads were randomly selected and interviewed between August 2007 and August 2008 in Eastern, Central, Upper East and Northern Regions of Ghana. Findings revealed increasing consumption of foreign rice as opposed to decreasing consumption of local rice and other staples like millet, sorghum and yam because of global-local interactions. However, opportunities exist to re-localize production-consumption patterns through the use of 'glocal foods' like improved 'koose and waakye'. Referencing the situation in Ghana, the study recommends improved production and processing practices backed with appropriate technologies that reflect changing consumption dynamics in order to take full advantage of opportunities created as a result of global-local interactions.
The paper sought to examine factors affecting the level of adoption of technologies transferred to farmers in the Modernisation of Agriculture in Ghana Project (MAG) from gender and power relations ...perspectives. Results of the study indicate a high rate of adoption of rice and maize technologies by both male and female farmers. Factors influencing adoption include extension service delivery, membership in farmer-based organisation (FBOs), and age. The likelihood of adoption of technologies increased with being a female farmer compared to being a male farmer. There was a discriminatory access to production resources such as land and tractor services against female farmers.
This article investigates gender dimensions of decision-making on access to, and control over, productive assets for agricultural development in selected communities in Ghana. The men were more ...educated, resourced, and economically empowered than the women. This resulted in differential access to, and control over, resources by gender and a low level of female participation in decision-making. The study identified a land access gap by gender and crop acreage gap of up to 80% for women as compared to men. Challenges limiting women in agricultural production and processing include inadequate land access, inadequate capital, inefficient processing technologies, and unattractive markets.
Plantain biomass value chain analysis was conducted to generate benchmark information that supports reduction of post-harvest losses of plantain and to identify value-added opportunities and linkages ...to new markets in Ghana. Specifically, this study sought to identify the actors and their roles along the plantain value chain, understand the plantain value chain activities and identify biomass value addition opportunities that will help reduce post-harvest losses of plantain. Using the value chain analysis approach a total of 309 plantain value chain actors including producers, processors, traders, caterers and consumers in the Brong Ahafo and Western regions of Ghana were interviewed. Post-harvest losses of 20% at the production, 15% at the market levels and less than 5% at the consumption level were revealed. Plantains were traded mostly in the unprocessed form and 83% farmer respondents sold plantain unprocessed. The cross-cutting constraints among the actors were inadequate credit accessibility, high transportation cost, limited processing capacities, seasonality of plantains and fluctuation in prices, marketing challenges and post-harvest losses among others. The study provides useful baseline information for new products development from the biomass along the plantain value chain.
A total of 231 cocoa farmers were interviewed through a structured survey in selected districts in the Eastern, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Western regions of Ghana to explore their views on how the ...existing land tenurial arrangement incentivise sustainable cocoa production practices. In addition, 12 key informant interviews and six focus group discussions were held. The composition of focus group discussions ranged between 14 and 26 cocoa farmers. Survey findings revealed that increasing cocoa production through farm expansion is no longer an option but the challenge is to meet the dual goal of environmental sustainability and improvement of farmers' welfare through the adoption of sustainable production practices. Survey findings confirmed that the existing land tenurial arrangements need to be improved in order to incentivise farmers in Ghana to adopt environmentally sustainable production practices. Farmers and other stakeholders suggested that the development of a land policy for cocoa farming that ensures proper documentation and formalisation of tenurial systems with clear benefit sharing agreements, education on land registration and proper acquisition of land and resolution of land disputes will incentivise the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices, among others.
This paper sought to investigate the characteristics of MSMEs and to suggest ways of improving performance, particularly tackling constraints faced by women and youth entrepreneurs in Ghana. A total ...of 4 433 MSME operators were interviewed in all the ten regions of Ghana using a structured questionnaire. The study revealed that apprenticeship was the most common form of training received by the MSME operators interviewed. Disaggregating data by gender, it was observed that more men had received training in their business operations than women. Close to 90% of the MSMEs were under sole proprietorship. There was significant correlation between gender and scale of enterprises, with increasing numbers of men as scale of operations increased. Women, who dominated the agro-processing, agro-industrial and services sectors, were constrained by ineffective marketing strategies, lack of capital, inadequate equipment and machinery, lack of improved technology, inadequate training and low skill development. Marketing strategies employed by the majority of women were limited, mostly patronising markets within their respective districts of business operations. The study recommended support for women to access sizeable business credit with flexible payment plans, tailor-made skill development training and improved access to institutional markets with quality and well-packaged products.
The concepts of ‘relevant social groups’ and ‘technical code’ are used to investigate the social relations in cowpea variety development (technology studies) and also the relationship of small-scale ...farmers to the Ghana School Feeding Program (market access) against the background of food sovereignty. For the technology studies, empirical findings reveal the wider socio-cultural context within which cowpea production, processing and consumption are organized and the differences in social meanings constructed for cowpea varieties among relevant social groups (RSGs) in the local cowpea network. Farmers attach social meanings to variety choices in relation to the purpose of cultivation, either primarily for household food provision or for commercial purposes, and select varieties on the basis of these social meanings alongside other, technical considerations, such as yield and tolerance to diseases and pests. There is another, sharper contrast between social meanings ascribed to cowpea variety choice by (small-scale) processors and consumers from that of the farmers. Processor and consumer cowpea variety preferences are tied to bean characteristics, such as white seed colour, short cooking time and taste, which aremore attuned to the social relevance of consumption than technical functionality for cultivation. There are different desires for different traits and thus different varieties of cowpea among the various RSGs, yet empirical findings show that the technical codes in variety designs do not reflect these. In particular, the social meanings constructed for preferred cowpea varieties among the RSGS in the user (processor/consumer, as opposed to producer) category go unrecognised in the variety designs produced in Ghana. Basically, empirical findings confirm a mismatch between what farmers grow and what consumers want. Thereis thus a demand on the Ghanaian cowpea market that local farmers fail to take advantage of, an opportunity that has been taken instead by foreign producers. To understand why the variety preferences of some RSGs have been neglected in Ghanaian cowpea variety development, we unearth the structural and asymmetric power relations among the RSGs in constructing the technical codes of variety designs. Research reveals three major phases in the social organisation of cowpea variety development in Ghana: the upstream breeding, downstream breeding and validation and release. A core element in the upstream breeding is the development of technical codes in variety designs or exotic lines using local germplasm as raw material at the international breeding centres. These codes have both technical specifications and in-built socio-cultural assumptions that become explicit through critical reflection on the variety development process. In the downstream breeding phase, the core element of the variety development process becomes the adaptability of the exotic lines to the local environment, basically involving evaluation of and selection from the variety designs developed upstream. At the validation and release phase, interpretative differences and design flexibility come to a closure as the National Variety Release Committee (NVRC) determines a proposed improved variety to be an improvement over already existing varieties. There is a strong influence of international researchers in the development of exotic lines upstream, largely due to power imbalances between this and other RSGs, such as in technical know-how, research infrastructure and funding resources. This asymmetric relationship means that downstream breeding activities are centrally controlled through the functioning of standardized breeding procedures developed by international breeding institutions at the upstream breeding phase working with the basic intention of a universal applicability of (cowpea) variety design. This research thus points especially to the need for institutional rearrangements that encourage a greater engagement of local researchers in upstream breeding and the inclusion of other RSGs in the user category in the breeding process. And in order to enhance flexibility in attuning exotic lines developed at international organisations to locality specific contexts in downstream breeding, this study recommends the establishment of localized (rather than global) breeding frameworks, with clear (sets of) RSG defined breeding objectives that consider the differences in variety preferences at production and consumption levels, for both market and household consumption. Indeed, small-scale farmers can enhance their access to the domestic market and their food sovereignty if demand driven varieties are produced. The market access study using the Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP) typifies a food re-localisation strategy which elaborates on the relationship of market access for smallholder farmers to their food sovereignty situations. Similarly to the empirical findings from the technology studies, the code analysis of the market access study shows structural limitations and unequal power relations among GSFP RSGs. Despite the good intentions of decentralizing decisions pertaining to the GSFP, this research reveals a top-down bureaucratic approach to program conceptualization and implementation that has effectively negated some RSGs. The GSFP was implemented with little involvement by small-holder farmers who are supposed to represent one of the beneficiaries of the programme (by supplying the market it creates) The local (district and school) level bodies supposed to be responsible for mobilizing community support and linking smallholders to the GSFP market were not empowered to perform. They were given little support or direction as to their roles and responsibilities and there were funding shortages for food purchases. This situation gave traders and other food suppliers the power to use their money to take advantage of the market opportunities created. The asymmetry of power influence among the RSGs in the GSFP network is reflected in the choice of food procurement model. A code analysis of the market access study shows three procurement models to be operative in the GSFP: i) theSupplier Model, which employs the use of contractors or suppliers to supply food items to the schools, ii) the School-Based Model,which involves thecommunity mobilization of resources and purchase of raw foodstuffs from local farmers, and iii) theCaterer Model, which involves the handling of food purchases and food preparations by contracted qualified caterers. In practice, the caterer model is found to be mostly used largely due to convenience and power imbalances, even though it is the school-based model that best fits the programme objectives. This is shown to be a significant cause of the failure of smallholders to access the GSGP market and their ‘replacement’ by traders and other food suppliers. Nevertheless, assessment of the socio-economic impact on the group of farmers (less than 30% of 100 farmers interviewed in GSFP participating communities) who have been able to access the GSFP market shows a very positive relationship between market access and household food sovereignty. In the space of a year, production of the crop sold (rice) went up 30%, food stocks rose by a half (from six to nine months) and farmers’ incomes increased by 80%. Notably, these farmers were organised, by a development agency, which also provided various inputs (including credit and technical assistance) and, acting as the link to the GSFP, guaranteed the market. Several factors are found to have limited and continue to restrict effective implementation of the GSFP, but from the code analysis it is clear that the GSFP can be socially reconstructed to seek specific goals. Despite the constraints limiting smallholder farmer access to the GSFP market, critical investigations into the procurement models open-up possibilities for reconstructing the GSFP market and making it an endogenous structure that can facilitate smallholder access. Identification also of the factors enabling access on the part of some farmers also suggests ways in which interventions in social relations can enable localised producer-consumer linkages through the GSFP that promote food sovereignty. Since resource constraints favour the use of supplier and caterer procurement models, it is recommended that contract agreements specify food purchases from local farmers. Concrete proposals for endogenizing the GSFP to facilitate the linkage between local food production and school feeding (local consumption) include i) strengthening collaboration efforts with strategic partners working with farmer groups, ii) developing social relations between farmers and caterers or school kitchen centres, and iii) affirming the roles and responsibilities of actors who have the capacity to develop farmer-GSFP linkages through performance contract agreements and regular monitoring. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture and FONG, an apex organisation of farmers’ groups, were identified as actors that could be developed for important, nationwide roles at the local level. This research shows a link betweenendogenous development andhousehold food sovereignty. Empirical findings from the GSFP analysis provide a test case of what actually happens to the food sovereignty situation of small-scale farmers who have good access to a domestic market. Using a range of measures at the household level as proxy for food sovereignty, this study shows a positive linkage between domestic market access for smallholder farmers and food sovereignty. However, it is realised that farmers in marginalized areas, especially those in hunger hotspots, cannot just produce for the GSFP market unless it is organised in a way that reflects endogenous capacities and improves small-scale farmers’ access to production resources. The technological studies and market access parts of this research both reveal the importance ofparticipation by RSGs – the former esp
PDF
