Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

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The statistics used here were simple descriptive measures of percentages for different clusters. A
case study approach was used to explore production relationships in different settlements , with
different ecologies, different production systems and different histories of integration into
markets and policy frameworks. The approach was not based on the search for ‘typical’
conditions but rather contrasting conditions and different cases. The primary concern was with
understanding variability. Therefore only the most limited significance should be attached to
averages and related statistics. Qualitative research consisted of informal case studies of
experiences of particular farmers and individuals, and explanations of the differences between
settlements by farmers. The findings of the quantitative data were taken back to settlements and
discussed with groups of farmers for explanation.
The aim was to gain samples of youth, women, men, indigenes and migrants, which would enable
different experiences to be collated rather than gain ‘representative sample’ of village
populations. ‘Migrants’ proved particularly problematic, since this is a highly differentiated
category, which includes local as well as long distance migrants. 12
The research has not been in a position to disaggregate different groups according to various
standards of social differentiation. The current fashion of differentiating rural populations into
‘the poor’, ‘very poor’ and ‘non-poor’ has not been followed, as the data decomposes in different
ways. Arguably, however, such an approach would do little to advance understanding of
processes of social differentiation, particularly in a context such as this where labour markets are
complex, both socially and occupationally, and subject to life cycle influences. Migrant labour in
West Africa is highly differentiated and often constituted by mobile labour networks. Within
these networks, labour contractors and migrant farm owners form an upper echelon of successful
migrants who then move into petty trading, transport etc., while the lower echelon is made up of
recent migrants who are usually youths taking up their first labour contracts. While differences
did appear in the present study as regards male and female farming strategies, there was no clear
trend for migrants or specific groups of migrants originating from particular areas. Thus, the
report is not able to specify particular social groupings of ‘the poor’, though it does show
processes and pressures which bring about social differentiation. This helps us understand
different farming strategies and pressures on farmers in the Brong Ahafo. The approach can then
12 Problems were also caused by the unwillingness to identify young adult and adolescent men as farm
workers (they were seen as too young to be so classed). This has been identified as an issue for further
deliberation in the full study.
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