ABCDE EFDBBABE ABCDAEADEFADBEE &CD'(B")B* EFDCAFDFFC ! "A#ABAC $CA%AA AA AC C AEAA%A AB ABCADEFBEFE CA FBEAFE!A DEACFCAEA"#$$ %F&# FAAFAE+'CCA*FDFCAF-A FBE! ./A0C Thanks I wish to thank the people who enabled me to carry out this study, especially the Regional Agriculture Development Unit Director and the Wa Municipal Unit Director and their teams. They welcomed me and did their best to help me. Special thanks to Abu Huudu for his availability, his logistic help and his vast knowledge. His commitment in the Upper West Region agriculture development was quite impressive A special thought for Emmanuelle Noirtin and S. R. Coleman, who shared with me a friendly home and office. I will not forget this five-month cohabitation ! I am grateful to Sixtus D. Segtub, student from the University for Development Studies, who provided the translation for technical and economic interviews. Many thanks to the farmers, traders and people in the neighbourhood of Wa, who devoted a lot of their time to make introduce me to the specificity of their agriculture and their culture. I do hope this study will be useful to them. Last but not least, I am most grateful to Olivier Ducourtieux for his support and his constructive comments before, during and after the field work. And of course, a special thought for Léa, Laure, Mariella, Rémi and Arthur who achieved similar studies for the same project, in other regions of Ghana. Our regular calls have been very useful for both work and morale ! 3 Abstract : Alleviating poverty and food insecurity that affect several regions of Ghana is one of the government’s priority. The Rice Sector Support Project (RSSP) aims at increasing livelihood of the poor farmers by developing lowland rice production. The donor asked for an agrarian system diagnosis in order to adapt RSSP actions and evaluate its impact in the developed areas. The study took place around Wa, capital of the Upper West Region. This dissertation presents a technical and economic analysis of the identified farming systems. The main farm differentiation factors are also detailed to understand agriculture dynamics. Until 1950, agriculture was practised at a community level and external trade was not much developed. Population increase, land tenure conditions, as well as post-independence development policies have led to rapid changes in the farming systems. In many farms, the decrease in fallow duration causes a decline in soil fertility and structural stability. Facing decreasing yields, farmers have adopted new crops and new varieties. Government subsidies have made fertilisers and tractor ploughing services affordable. Animal traction and dry season gardens have offered new opportunities to farmers who could afford them. Gathering still occupies an important place in the agrarian system : a dawadawa and shea-tree parkland is maintained to provide essential proteins and fats. Livestock raising is not traditionally linked to agriculture, and animals are considered as a capital to solve family issues. Farmers are now looking for a way to combine agriculture and livestock raising in their production system. The land tenure system favours the wealthiest landowners and prevent poor farmers from accessing to a land ; it could jeopardise the sustainability of the infrastructures developed by RSSP. This document also presents some proposals from the farmers’ interviews. Résumé : Le Ghana cherche à lutter contre la pauvreté et la malnutrition qui touchent plusieurs régions du pays. Le projet de soutien à la filière rizicole (RSSP) a pour objectif d’augmenter le niveau de vie des paysans les plus pauvres en développant leur production de riz dans les bas- fonds. Le bailleur de fond a commandé une analyse-diagnostic de la situation agricole dans les zones concernées par le projet afin d’en adapter les actions et d’en évaluer l’impact. Ce mémoire présente l’analyse du fonctionnement technico-économique des systèmes de production autour de la capitale de la région Upper West. Les principaux facteurs de différenciation des exploitations agricoles y sont aussi explicités. Jusqu’en 1950, la majorité des exploitations conservent une économie traditionnelle centrée sur la communauté. L’augmentation de la population, le système foncier et les politiques de développement post-indépendance vont entraîner une différenciation rapide des systèmes de pro- duction. Dans de nombreuses exploitations, la diminution de la durée de la friche provoque une baisse de la fertilité et de la stabilité structurelle des sols. Pour compenser la baisse tendancielle des rendements, des agriculteurs adoptent de nouvelles cultures et de nouvelles variétés. L’accès aux services de labour au tracteur et aux engrais est facilité par es subventions gouvernementales. Le développement de la culture attelée et des jardins de saison sèche offrent de nouvelles opportunités pour les paysans qui peuvent accéder à ces techniques. La collecte occupe encore une place impor- tante dans le système agraire, avec notamment l’entretien d’un parc arboré à nérés et karités qui fourni des protéines et des matières grasses essentielles. L’élevage est traditionnellement considéré comme un capital peu lié à l’agriculture, mais les agriculteurs sont à la recherche d’un mode de fonctionnement permettant de combiner agriculture et élevage dans leurs systèmes de production. Le système foncier, qui favorise les grands propriétaires et privent les plus petits de l’accès à la terre, pourrait compromettre la durabilité des aménagements du projet RSSP. Ce mémoire présente aussi des propositions issues des entretiens avec les acteurs économiques locaux. 4 Table des matières Introduction 8 1 Wa, capital of the Upper West Region, has a strong influence on agriculture in the study area 10 1.1 Ghana is more and more opened up to international trade . 10 1.1.1 Climate and relief make Ghana a very contrasting country . 10 1.1.2 The Ghanaian population is urbanising, but agriculture remains the first em- ployment sector . 13 1.1.3 Investments have long been concentrated in the South of Ghana . 15 1.1.3.1 The pre-colonial Ghana : a society of hunter-gatherer farmers prac- tising slash-and-burn agriculture . 16 1.1.3.2 The Gold Coast under European domination : a colony of exploi- tation of gold, slaves and agricultural resources . 16 1.1.3.3 After the 1957 independence, the democratic regime of Nkrumah drifted towards dictatorship and led to economic crisis . 18 1.1.3.4 Rawling’s Ghana : rigour and structural adjustment . 18 1.1.3.5 Ghana today : ambitious programs to improve food self-sufficiency, education and health, and fight against poverty . 20 1.2 The Rice Sector Support Project fits into the scheme of the national agriculture development policies . 20 1.2.1 RSSP : strengthening the rice sector to improve food security and incomes of poor farmers . 20 1.2.2 An agrarian system diagnosis to understand the situation and adapt the pro- ject actions . 21 1.3 The study area belongs to the Black Volta watershed and is organised around the town of Wa . 23 1.3.1 The Upper West Region is one of the poorest regions in Ghana . 23 1.3.2 The study area has been chosen to meet the needs of the project . 24 1.3.3 A landscape of mixed farming on uplands and rice cultivation on lowlands . 25 2 The gap between production systems has widened during the last decades 29 2.1 The early XXth century agrarian system : slash-and-burn agriculture on the uplands . 29 2.2 The 1960-1983 period : the modernisation of agriculture was intended and supported by the government . 33 2.2.1 Population growth impaired the tenure system and fertility reproduction . 33 2.2.2 The moto-mechanisation of agriculture under Nkrumah’s regime allow the landowners to increase their farmed acreage . 34 5 2.2.3 The development of lowland rice and upland cotton . 34 2.2.4 Farmers who could not increase their acreage tried to intensity their produc- tion per surface unit . 36 2.2.5 The development of state schools in the 1960s and the increase of the social differentiation . 38 2.3 The 1983-1995 period is characterised by the liberalisation of the economy and cuts in public support . 39 2.3.1 Animal traction was a profitable alternative to tractors . 39 2.3.2 Dry season gardens first interested the farms with limited capital and workforce 39 2.3.3 These evolutions turn the community organisation upside down . 40 2.4 The 1995-present period : agriculture is a means of alleviating poverty and food dependence . 40 2.4.1 New plants, supported by governmental and NGO programs, are integrated in the production systems . 41 2.4.2 The recent urban development increases social differentiation . 41 2.5 The current production systems . 42 2.5.1 Methodology . 42 2.5.2 Dagati farms with pig raising and backyard fields (SP10) . 45 2.5.3 The big landowners with cattle kept by a Fulani (SP1, SP2) and the small SP4 type landowners . 50 2.5.3.1 Big landowners with cattle kept by a Fulani – the largest type (SP1) 50 2.5.3.2 Big landowners with cattle kept by a Fulani – the medium type (SP2) 54 2.5.3.3 Upland and lowland cultivation, high fertilisation (SP4) . 56 2.5.4 Fulani herders farming maize with organic fertilisation (SP11) . 58 2.5.5 Upland crops with no fertilisation (SP7a, SP7b with oxen) . 60 2.5.5.1 Upland crops with no fertilisation with no traction oxen (SP7a) . 60 2.5.5.2 Upland crops with no fertilisation with a pair of traction oxen (SP7b) 61 2.5.6 Lowland, upland and dry season garden cultivation (SP3a, SP3b, SP3c) . 64 2.5.6.1 Lowland, upland and dry season garden cultivation – large surfaces (SP3a) .