Action research on alternative land tenure arrangements in Wenchi, Ghana: learning from ambiguous social dynamics and self-organized institutional innovation
Tóm tắt
This study reports on action research efforts that were aimed at developing institutional arrangements beneficial for soil fertility improvement. Three stages of action research are described and analyzed. We initially began by bringing stakeholders together in a platform to engage in a collaborative design of new arrangements. However, this effort was stymied mainly because conditions conducive for learning and negotiation were lacking. We then proceeded to support experimentation with alternative arrangements initiated by individual landowners and migrant farmers. The implementation of these arrangements too ran into difficulties due to intra-family dynamics and ambiguities regarding land tenure. Further investigations to find out how ambiguities could be tackled revealed that the local actors themselves had taken initiatives towards developing institutional innovations to reduce ambiguities. However, there is still considerable scope for further development of these self-organized innovations. The article ends with a reflection on inter-disciplinary action research, where it is argued that making “mistakes” is an inherent and necessary characteristic in action research that aims to address complex social issues.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Aarts, M.N.C. 1998. Een Kwestie van Natuur; een Studie naar de Aard en het Verloop van Communicatie over Natuur en Natuurbeleid. Published doctoral dissertation. Wageningen: Wageningen Agricultural University.
Addo-Fening, R. 1987. Customary land-tenure in Akyem-Abuakwa. Universitas 9. Legon: University of Ghana.
Adjei-Nsiah, S., C. Leeuwis, K.E. Giller, O. Sakyi-Dawson, J. Cobbina, T.W. Kuyper, M. Abekoe, and W. Van der Werf. 2004. Land tenure and differential soil fertility management practices among native and migrant farmers in Wenchi, Ghana: implications for interdisciplinary action research. NJAS-Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences 52: 331–348.
Adjei-Nsiah, S., C. Leeuwis, O. Sakyi-Dawson, K.E. Giller, and T.W. Kuyper. 2007a. Exploring diversity among farmers for orienting interdisciplinary action research on cropping system management in Wenchi, Ghana: the significance of time horizons. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 5(2&3): 176–194.
Adjei-Nsiah, S., T.W. Kuyper, C. Leeuwis, M.K. Abekoe, and K.E. Giller. 2007b. Evaluating sustainable and profitable cropping sequences with cassava and four legume crops: effects on soil fertility and maize yields in the forest/savannah transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana. Field Crops Research 103: 87–97.
Amanor, K.S. 1993. Wenchi farmer training project: social/environmental baseline study: Unpublished report to Overseas Development Administration.
Amanor, K.S. 1994. The new frontier: farmers’ response to land degradation: a West African study. London: Zed Books.
Amanor, K.S., and M.K. Diderutuah. 2001. Sharecropping in the oil palm and citrus belt of Ghana. London: IIED/GRET.
Bawden, R. 1994. Creating learning systems: a metaphor for institutional reform for development. In Beyond farmer first. Rural people’s knowledge, agricultural research and extension practice, ed. I. Scoones and J. Thompson, 258–263. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.
Berkes, F., and C. Folke. 1998. Linking social and ecological systems. Management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Berry, S. 1993. No condition is permanent-the social dynamics of agrarian change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Berry, S. 1997. Tomatoes, land and hearsay: property and history in Asante in the time of structural adjustment. World Development 25 (8): 1225–1241.
Berry, S. 2002. The everyday politics of rent-seeking: land allocation on the outskirts of Kumasi, Ghana. In Negotiating property in Africa, ed. K. Juul and C. Lund, 107–133. Portsmouth: Heineman.
Bie, S.W. 2001. The 1990s: an important decade for agricultural research in developing countries. In ISNAR annual report 2000: reflecting on an important decade for agricultural research in developing countries. The Hague: International Service for National Agricultural Research.
Brader, L. 2002. A study about the causes for low adoption rates of agricultural research results in West and Central Africa: possible solutions leading to greater future impacts. A study commissioned by the interim science council/CGIAR. Rome: FAO.
Chambers, R., and J. Jiggins. 1987. Agricultural research for resource-poor farmers. Part 1: transfer of technology and farming system research. Agricultural Administration and Extension 27: 35–52.
Collinson, M.P. 2000. The history of farming systems research. Wallingford: CABI Publishing.
Crook, R. 2005. State courts and the regulation of land disputes in Ghana: the litigants’ perspective. IDS Working Paper 241. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
DFID (Department for International Development). 2000. Justice and poverty reduction: safety, security and access to justice for all. London: DFID.
ECA (Economic Commission for Africa). 2004. Land tenure systems and their impacts on food security and sustainable development in Africa. Addis Ababa: ECA.
Fisher, R., and W. Ury. 1981. Getting to yes: negotiating agreement without giving in. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
Fraser, D.G.E. 2004. Land tenure and agricultural management: soil conservation on rented and owned fields in southwest British Columbia. Agriculture and Human Values 21: 73–79.
Fred-Mensah, B.K. 1999. Capturing ambiguities: communal conflict management alternative in Ghana. World Development 27 (6): 957–965.
Gavian, S., and S. Ehui. 1999. Measuring the production efficiency of alternative land tenure contracts in a mixed crop-livestock system in Ethiopia. Agricultural Economics 20 (1): 37–49.
Gavian, S., and M. Fafchamps. 1996. Land tenure and allocative efficiency in Niger. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 78: 460–471.
Geels, F. 2002. Understanding the dynamics of technological transitions. A co-evolutionary and socio-technical analysis. Enschede: Twente University Press.
IAC (Inter-Academy Council). 2004. Realizing the promise and potential of African agriculture. The Hague: Inter Academy Council.
Kolb, D.A. 1984. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Lavigne Delville, P. 2003. When farmers use “pieces of paper” to record their land transactions in Francophone rural Africa: insights into the dynamics of institutional innovation. European Journal of Development Research 14: 89–109.
Lavigne Delville, P., C. Toulmi, J.P Colin, and J.P Chauveau. 2001. Negotiating access to land in West Africa: a synthesis of findings from research on derived rights to land. London: IIED.
Le Meur, P.Y. 2002. Trajectories of the politicisation of land issues: case studies from Benin. In Negotiating property in Africa, ed. K. Juul and C. Lund, 135–155. Portsmouth: Heineman.
Leeuwis, C. 2000. Re-conceptualizing participation for sustainable rural development. Towards a negotiation approach. Development and Change 31: 931–959.
Leeuwis, C., and A. Van Den Ban. 2004. Communication for rural innovation: rethinking agricultural extension. 3rd edn. Oxford: Blackwell Science.
Maarleveld, M., and C. Dangbégnon. 1999. Managing natural resources: a social learning perspective. Agriculture and Human Values 16: 267–280.
Mastenbroek, W.F.G. 1997. Onderhandelen. Utrecht: Uitgeverj het Spectrum B.V.
Migot-Adholla, S.E., G. Benneh, F. Place, and S. Atsu. 1994. Land, security of tenure and agricultural productivity in Ghana. In Searching for land tenure security in Africa, ed. J.W. Bruce and S.E. Migot-Adholla, 97–118. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.
Mutimukuru, T., and C. Leeuwis. 2004. Process leadership and natural resource management in Zimunya communal area. In Agrarian institutions between policies and local action: experiences from Zimbabwe, ed. H.A.J. Moll, C. Leeuwis, E. Manzungu, and L.F. Vincent, 189–216. Harare: Weaver Press.
Neef, A. 2001. Land tenure and soil conservation practices–evidence from West Africa and Southeast Asia. In Sustaining the global farm, ed. D.E. Stott, R.H. Mohtar, and G.C. Steinhardt, 125–130. Selected papers from the 10th International Conservation Organisation Meeting, Purdue University and the USDA-ARS National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory, 24–29 May 1999.
Ostrom, E. 1990. Governing the commons. The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pretty, J.N., and R. Chambers. 1994. Towards a learning paradigm: new professionalism and institutions for agriculture. In Beyond farmer first: rural people’s knowledge, agricultural research and extension practice, ed. I. Scoones and J. Thompson, 182–202. London: Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd.
Rogers, E.M. 1983. Diffusion of innovations. 3rd edn. New York: Free Press.
Röling, N.G., and J. Jiggins. 1998. The ecological knowledge system. In Facilitating sustainable agriculture. Participatory learning and adaptive management in times of environmental uncertainty, ed. N.G. Röling and M.A.E. Wagemakers, 283–307. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Röling, N.G., and M.A.E. Wagemakers. 1998. Facilitating sustainable agriculture. Participatory learning and adaptive management in times of environmental uncertainty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Röling, N.G., D. Hounkonnou, S.K. Offei, R.C. Tossou, and A. Van Huis. 2004. Linking science and farmers’ innovative capacity: diagnostic studies from Ghana and Benin. NJAS-Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences 52: 211–235.
Saïdou, A., D. Kossou, R. Tossou, P. Richards, and T.W. Kuyper. 2005. Land tenure and sustainable soil fertility management in Benin: towards the establishment of cooperation space among stakeholders. In Convergence of sciences: creating innovation systems with African farmers, ed. A. van Huis, 63–64. Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop of the Convergence of Sciences (COS) Project, Elmina, Ghana, 25–28 October 2005.
Smits, R. 2002. Innovation studies in the 21st century. Questions from a user’s perspective. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 69 (9): 861–883.
Steins, N., and V. Edwards. 1999. Platforms for collective Action in multiple use common pool resources.Agriculture and Human Values 16: 241–255.
Stoop, W.A. 2002. A study and comprehensive analysis of the causes for low adoption of agricultural research results in West and Central Africa: possible solutions leading to greater future impact: the Mali and Guinea case studies. A study commissioned by interim science council/CGIAR. Rome: FAO.
Van Veldhuizen, L., A. Waters-Bayer, and H. De Zeeuw. 1997. Developing technology with farmers. A trainer’s guide for participatory learning. London: Zed Books Ltd.