Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

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4.1.17 Farmer adaptation and innovation
Farming systems within the Brong Ahafo region are complex, dynamic and diverse. Underlying
this complexity is the ability of farmers to adapt to new conditions which result from changes in
the biophysical, market, and policy environments. While self-provisioning is still important for
most farmers, all the farming systems investigated have cash crop sectors which focus on
producing for a defined market niche in which the farmers in question have comparative
advantage. These niches change with time. Thus:
" In the past, the presence in certain areas of state farms and other government agricultural
projects led to the availability of cheap, subsidised inputs and government support services.
This encouraged farmers to go for high input permanent production on stumped and cleared
land. It was the low cost of inputs and services, not pressures of land, which led to the
breakdown of bush fallowing in these areas.
" Elsewhere, with insecure access to inputs, farmers began to develop alternative modes of
investing in agricultural intensification other than through state controlled inputs. The
significant amounts of available migrant labour were used to expand the areas under crop
production and to intensify weeding regimes. The expansion of yam cultivation in the
parkland areas was brought about in this way.
" The crisis in high-input agriculture resulting from the implementation of Structural
Adjustment policies led to a shift in food production to low-input areas, where productive
soils are still available.
" In some of the maize-producing areas, a combination of discontinued input use, unproductive
soils, unreliable climate and changes in relative market prices has led farmers to switch to
other crops such as cassava and groundnuts. Risk is also mitigated by mixed cropping of a
variety of crops able to respond to different conditions.
" In yet other maize-producing areas, farmers continue with this crop (though with reduced
inputs), while diversifying into other intensive sectors, such as vegetables which offer higher
returns.
" Yam remains the most important crop in the northern parklands, within a bush fallowing
system; varietal selection may be matched to land availability (with less heavy feeders
gaining prominence when fallows shorten), as well as climate, market demand and taste. Yam
farming is also being intensified through mixed cropping, particularly rotations of yam with
cassava followed by groundnut, or (as a risk mitigation strategy) sorghum and bambara
beans.
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