Irrigate or migrate?

Local livelihood adaptation in Northern in response to ecological changes and economic challenges

Inaugural-Dissertation

zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde

der

Philosophischen Fakultät

der

Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität

zu Bonn

vorgelegt von

Benjamin Schraven

aus

Wissen

Bonn 2010

Gedruckt mit der Genehmigung der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Zusammensetzung der Prüfungskommission:

Prof. Dr. Jörg Blasius (Vorsitzender) Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Evers (Betreuer und Gutachter) Prof. Dr. Solvay Gerke (Gutachterin) Prof. Dr. Eckart Ehlers (weiteres prüfungsberechtigtes Mitglied)

Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 29.09.2010

Acknowledgements

First of all, I have to thank Dr. Julia Schindler for providing me with her data and survey sample. Without her assistance, the conduction of this study would not have been possible in this form. To the same degree, I also have to thank Dr. Wofram Laube, who ever was a knowledgeable and amicable tutor. His advices were (in nearly all cases) very valuable for my work. A very big thank you also goes to Prof. Dr. Solvay Gerke for providing me with a very adequate field research time period and - last, but definitely not least - to Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Evers for his patient, excellent and inspiring supervision of this thesis. The underlying research of this thesis was mainly undertaken in the scope of the GLOWA Volta Project. This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). I am very grateful for the support of the ministry, which it has granted me on behalf of the German taxpayers. A special and very big thank you also goes to my (most beloved) wife Marijke Looman and Felizitas Scholten for doing the hard but very conscionable job of doing the proofreading of this thesis. I also thank the CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food ‘Contribution of informal shallow groundwater irrigation to livelihoods security and poverty reduction in the White Volta Basin: current extent and future sustainability’ (CP 65) for its financial support of this thesis.

For their very trustful and enriching research cooperation with me, I have to cordially thank John Amegashitsi and Martha Awo. Without their hard research work and in particular without their important and interesting findings, this doctoral thesis would definitely be lacking very important information. I wish you both all the best for your academic and private future.

Furthermore, I am also very grateful to Jacob Afeliga for the great job he has done as a research assistant and in particular for sharing his huge knowledge with me. I really have enjoyed the field trips in North Ghana with him - even despite the terrible temperatures at the end of the dry season. For their really good work as interviewers, I also would like to thank Lambert Akanyapagra, James Atonga, Bennedict ‘Big Ben’ Baluah, Maxwell Abapoli, Isaac Apugi and Alice Atindema.

i A special thanks for their assistance as well as for a nice company in Ghana and/ or at ZEF during my PhD phase also goes to the following persons: Jennifer Hauck, Salisu Adams, Mustapha Sachibu, Emmanuel Amoah, Elli Sokpoli, Abuyama Bennedicta Montrage - especially for providing me with cold drinks in the evening -, Ben Heywood, Daniel Ofori, Dr. Boubacar Barry, Prof. Dr. Eckart Ehlers, Prof. Dr. Jörg Blasius, Dr. Till Stellmacher, Dr. Irit Eguavoen, Cubura Laube-Adewuyi, Guido Lüchters, Dr. Jens Liebe, Dr. Saravanan V.S., Chian-Woei Shyu, Dr. Gabi Waibel, Dr. Günther Manske, Rosemarie Zabel, Dr. William Tsuma, Daniel Spalthoff, Prof. Dr. Steve Tonah, Dr. Bao Le Quang, Nana Ato Arthur, Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Dr. Fabian Scholtes, Kimberley Couvson, Emmanuel Derbile, Dr. Eva Youkhana and Dr. Charles Rodgers. Please note that the sequence of mentioning does not correlate with my personal degree of gratefulness towards the mentioned persons in any form.

Finally, I most notably have to thank my family. Particularly, I have to thank my mother and my grandparents as well as my wife Marijke Looman. Without their assistance, I even would not have been able to write this thesis at all.

Bonn, 19.10.2010 Benjamin Schraven

ii Content

List of Figures ...... v List of Tables ...... vi List of Boxes ...... vii List of Photos ...... vii Deutsche Kurzzusammenfassung ...... 1 I Introduction ...... 11 II Local livelihood adaptation: an analysis framework ...... 16 Chapter summary ...... 34 III Research design ...... 35 IV The study region ...... 38 IV.1 Population and environmental pressure and its interference with the local peasant agriculture ...... 40 Excursus: environmental degradation versus ‘lie of the land’? ...... 40 Processes of environmental change and the local agriculture in the study region ...... 44 IV.2 Labour migration as a traditional coping strategy and its interference with regional underdevelopment ...... 59 IV.3 The cultural meaning of labour migration in Northern Ghana ...... 81 IV.4 Between continuity and change: social organisation and cooperation in Northern Ghana in their historical context ...... 85 Chapter summary ...... 99 V Shallow groundwater irrigation farming as adaptive strategy ...... 100 V.1 Shallow groundwater irrigation farming as an agricultural innovation process ...... 101 The innovation- and risk-averse peasant? ...... 101 Who are the agricultural innovators and why do they innovate? ...... 105 Farmers learning from farmers - the moral economy of knowledge sharing ...... 116 V.2 The access to other relevant resources and marketing ...... 122 Land and water ...... 122 Marketing ...... 126 Labour ...... 133 V.3 Limitations and constraints of growth ...... 139

iii V.4 Shallow groundwater irrigation farming and its adaptive effects ...... 147 Chapter summary ...... 151 VI The significance of seasonal migration ...... 152 VI.1 Migration decision theories - from laws to cultures of migration ...... 152 VI.2 Seasonal migration among irrigation and non-irrigation households ...... 157 VI.3 Current migration risks and the changing face of seasonal migration ...... 163 Chapter summary ...... 174 VII Conclusion ...... 175 References ...... 181 Appendix ...... 197 Appendix 1 Questionnaire for the 2007 household survey ...... 197 Appendix 2 Selected items for the wealth indicator ...... 212 Appendix 3 Classification table for regression analysis ...... 213 Appendix 4 Weight factors for the plants used for the construction of the 2006 rainy season values added ...... 214

iv List of Figures

Figure II.1: A livelihood adaptation analysis framework ...... 27 Figure II.2: Circumstances in which bonding and networking social capital are important for adaptation ...... 30 Figure IV.1: Precipitation, temperature and surface runoff predictions for Northern Ghana 2030/2039-1991/2000 ...... 47 Figure IV.2: Aggregated rainy season land size of farm households in the study region ...... 53 Figure IV.3: Cropping calendar for peasant rainy season farming in Northern Ghana ...... 56 Figure V.1: Years in which interviewed farmers have started with riverine SGI farming in the study area (2008; accumulated) ...... 112 Figure V.2: Land payments (including monetary values of tokens) being paid in 2006 and 2008 ...... 125 Figure V.3: Total annual fresh tomato imports in tons from to Ghana 2004 - 2006 ...... 129 Figure V.4: Percent of interviewed farmers that made a loss in 2006 and 2007 .. 130 Figure V.5: Main reasons for not doing irrigation farming (2007) ...... 141 Figure V.6: Major problems of irrigation farming as faced by the farmers (2006) ...... 144 Figure V.7: Mean rainy season value added in US$ - 2005 and 2007 in comparison ...... 146 Figure V.8: Mean wealth indicator points - 2006 and 2008 in comparison...... 150 Figure VI.1: Primary bad aspects of seasonal migration mentioned (20