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Climate Change and Livelihood Vulnerability in Northwest Ghana “We’re Managing!” Climate Change and Livelihood Vulnerability in Northwest Ghana Kees van der Geest 2004 Leiden: African Studies Centre Research Report No. 74 Author contact: E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.keesvandergeest.nl Published by: African Studies Centre P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden Tel: + 31 - 71 - 527 33 72 Fax: + 31 - 71 - 527 33 44 E-mail: [email protected] Website:http://asc.leidenuniv.nl Printed by: PrintPartners Ipskamp B.V, Enschede ISBN: 90.5448.059.9 © African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2004 This book is dedicated to: Mister Kontana Contents List of tables ix List of figures xi List of graphs xi List of boxes xii List of photographs xii Introduction and Acknowledgements xiii 1. THEORY: CLIMATE, VULNERABILITY & LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES 1 Climate 2 Vulnerability 8 Livelihood strategies 23 Conceptual framework 27 2. RESEARCH METHODS 30 Research questions 30 Secondary data 33 Units of analysis and questionnaire 34 The reconstruction of ‘livelihood histories’ 42 Participation and engagement: The hoe and the pen 45 3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 47 The Origins of Dagara people 47 The Slave Trade 49 Colonial Economic Policy in the ‘Northern Territories of the Gold Coast 52 The Catholic Mission 62 4. CLIMATE CHANGE AND CROP CULTIVATION 66 Classifying the Climate of the Research Area 67 Rainfall characteristics 67 Climatic trends 68 Drought Risk and Crop Production 71 5. THE ENVIRONMENT: THE SPACE OF VULNERABILITY 76 Population density 78 The natural environment 79 The economic environment 89 The socio-cultural environment 101 vii 6. LIVELIHOOD ANALYSIS: AGRICULTURE 106 Introduction to the livelihood analysis survey 106 Land tenure 109 Crop cultivation 111 Animal Husbandry 125 Other Agricultural Activities 134 7. LIVELIHOOD ANALYSIS: DIVERSIFICATION 137 Introduction and link with theory 137 Female non-farm income 141 Male non-farm income 144 Seasonal labour migration 148 Family networks and inter-household transfers 152 Food aid 156 Income portfolios and degree of de-agrarianisation 156 Conclusions and livelihood vulnerability profiles 160 8. LIVELIHOOD HISTORIES & IN-DEPTH ANALYSES 166 Introduction 166 Francisca Mweyang 168 Egidius Dugyi 197 Osman Ali 222 9. CONCLUSION: (HOW) ARE WE MANAGING? 264 REFERENCES 281 APPENDIX 287 GLOSSARY 289 viii List of tables 1.1 Nature and level of vulnerability 18 2.1 The distribution of households and compounds in the survey sample 38 2.2 Selected demographic indicators of the four sample lines 39 3.1 Taxes levied by the colonial rulers in the Northern Territories 54 3.2 Heads of cattle in the Northern Territories (1921-1959) 59 4.1 Data on which the analyses in chapter four are based 67 4.2 Average annual rainfall; harvested area; agricultural production and yields for different crops in the Upper West Region (1986-1998) 73 4.3 Correlation between annual rainfall figures and agricultural production in the Upper West Region (1986-1998) 75 5.1 Population density and growth in the ten administrative regions of Ghana (1984-2000) 79 5.2 Population density and growth in the five administrative districts of the UWR (1984- 2000) 79 5.3 Comparison of yields and acreage per capita of major food crops in Lawra and Sisala District (1992-1998) 84 5.4 Some of the non-agricultural income generating activities encountered in the Nandom area 91 5.5 Production, human demand and percentage self-sufficiency of four food crops in Lawra District (1992-1999) 92 5.6 Population density, agricultural production and food security in the UWR (1992-1998) 93 6.1 The ten indices used in the quantitative analysis of vulnerability 108 6.2 Land tenure situation of sixty households in the Nandom area (1999) 110 6.3 Land preparation methods of sixty households and the acreage they cultivated (1999) 118 6.4 Inter-generational trends in the acreage cultivated with different crops 120 6.5 Inter-generational trends in the yield of different crops 121 6.6 Food sales by crop and vulnerability group; food purchases by vulnerability group (1999) 124 6.7 Self-sufficiency in food production in the 1990s: scores of three vulnerability groups 125 6.8 Selected indicators of livestock ownership among sixty farm households 127 6.9 Trends in livestock ownership among sixty households (approximately 1990-2000) 131 7.1 Distribution of income generating activities over households in three vulnerability groups 140 7.2 Breakdown of six diverse categories of income generating activities 141 7.3 Annual income from different types of male casual labour (1999) 148 7.4 Selected characteristics of seasonal labour migration in the survey sample 149 7.5 Seasonal labour migration characteristics per vulnerability group 150 7.6 Net inter-household flows of labour, food and money at three different geographical levels 152 ix 7.7 Trends in inter-household transfers of labour, food and money 155 7.8 Non-agricultural income indicators of the three vulnerability groups 157 7.9 Trends in non-agricultural income; number of non-agricultural income generating activities 158 7.10 Indicators of income diversification in the three vulnerability groups (1999) 159 7.11 Correlations between indices of vulnerability 161 8.1 Summary of Francisca Mweyang’s Life History 168 8.2 Summary of Egidius Dugyi’s Life History 197 8.3 Egidius’ acreage cultivated in the 2000 farming season 214 8.4 Summary of Osman Ali’s Life History 222 8.5 Osman Ali’s household members 227 8.6 Income generating activities of Osman Ali’s household members 256 A1 Consumer units and labour units: conversion factors used in my vulnerability analysis 287 A2 Recommended energy intakes and adult male equivalence scale for Ghana Living Standard Survey 287 A3 Minimum energy requirements of adults by gender, body weight and physical activity used by FAO 288 x List of figures 1.1 The role of assets and exchange as a buffer between production and consumption 12 1.2 The causal structure of vulnerability 13 1.3 The causal structure of vulnerability after integration of the ‘human ecology’ approach 16 1.4 Sensitivity and resilience 19 1.5 Conceptual framework: Farm household vulnerability and responses to normal opportunities and constraints, unusual events and changing conditions 27 8.1 Genealogy of part of Francisca’s patrilineage 169 8.2 Genealogy of part of Egidius’ patrilineage 198 8.3 Genealogy of part of Osman’s patrilineage 223 9.1 Schematic summary of farm household vulnerability and responses to normal constraints, unusual events and changing conditions in the research area 277 List of graphs 4.1 Average rainfall in 10-day periods for Nandom (1989) set against the critical amounts for dry, wet and very wet 10-day periods 68 4.2 Total annual rainfall; standard deviation of annual rainfall and inter-annual variability of annual rainfall in Lawra (1926-1982) and Nandom (1983-1999) 69 4.3 Eleven year moving averages of monthly rainfall in Lawra (1926-1982) and Nandom (1983-1999) 72 4.4 Annual rainfall, harvested area, production and yields for five crops in the Upper West Region (1986-1989) 74 5.1 Market prices of food crops in the Lawra market (1987-1999) 96 5.2 Seasonality of food prices in Lawra market (1987-1999) 97 6.1 The distribution of livestock ownership by vulnerability group 128 7.1 Livelihood profiles of the three vulnerability groups based on index scores of vulnerability 161 xi List of boxes 1.1 Household vulnerability to hazards and a human body’s vulnerability to diseases: a comparison 10 2.1 Excerpt from Questionnaire: household determination 37 2.2 The concept of ‘pathways’ as proposed by de Bruijn & van Dijk 44 List of photographs 1 Mr. Kontana plastering the wall of his compound with sand and cow dung 65 2 A new variety of millet (Dorado) growing on a compound farm 75 3 Labour party taking a break to drink local sorghum beer 105 4 Woman sowing guinea corn with a baby on her back 113 5 Husband and wife prepare their compound farm with a donkey plough 119 6 A bundle (‘cajin’) of millet is being removed from the granary 122 7 Man going to the Nandom market with a sheep on his bicycle 132 8 Communal fishing with baskets in shallow water 134 9 Woman brewing pito (sorghum beer) 142 10 Mother and daughters preparing sheabutter 144 11 Young men making bricks for house construction 145 12 Young man making bicycle seat covers 147 13 Women gathering leaves to be used as soup ingredients or to be sold in the market 165 14 Cooking pots and maize cobs 167 15 The harvest of the year 2000 is drying on Francisca’s roof 196 16 Woman preparing T.Z. out of millet (photo: Arjen Schijf) 221 17 Farming group preparing a field 263 18 Small boys applying animal dung on the compound farm 279 xii Introduction and acknowledgements “We are managing!” In the Nandom area in northwest Ghana, you are likely to get this answer when you ask somebody: “How do you do?” It expresses that people in the research area somehow manage to make ends meet. It also indicates that people face a number of constraints or difficulties that have to be managed in order to secure a certain standard of living and well-being. But are they really managing? Is it not just a matter of politeness to say that you are fine: that your situation is manageable? If politeness indeed blinds the true picture, then further inquiry into people’s livelihood should reveal who is managing and who is not. Philibert Maniaasie and Francisca Mweyang are both in their late fifties. They live a stone’s throw away from each other. Philibert has lived and worked in southern Ghana for more than twenty years.
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