Vulnerability to land and soil degradation

In Chapter 3, I described food crop farming as a primary livelihood of the people in the Atankwidi basin. Although many households depend on food crop farming, soil and land degradation pose a serious risk to production. As a result, household food crop production is susceptible to soil degradation. The concept „vulnerability‟ as used in this analysis denotes a precarious situation of food crop production arising from land degradation. Vulnerability refers to defencelessness, insecurity, and exposure to risk, shocks and stress and the difficulty in coping with them (Chambers, 1989:1; 2006). Thus, vulnerability has two sides, an external side and an internal side. In this context, an external side comprising the risks, shocks, and stress posed by degraded soils to which

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the household is subject and an internal side comprising the household‟s (in) ability to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of poor soil fertility. It is this distinction between the exposure to external threats and the ability to cope with them that is described as the „double structure of vulnerability‟ (van Dillen, 2004; Birkmann, 2006;

19). Drawing on this double structure in his research on famine, Bohle (2001:119) underscore that „vulnerability‟ is the outcome of interaction between exposure to external stressors and the coping capacity of the affected household. By implication, the response of the household, in terms of its capacity to cope with the external threats determines its extent of vulnerability to the external threat. It is this understanding that van der Geest (2004) illustrates in the point that although a flood may occur, varied characteristics (eg., social and economic) of households can result in differential impacts on household livelihoods across households. The UN/ISDR underscores the multi-dimensional nature of „vulnerability‟. It emphasizes that „vulnerability‟ embodies physical, social, economic and environmental factors. In an applied sense, „vulnerability‟ according to UN/ISDR arise from the peculiar characteristics and circumstances of the household food crop production system that predispose it to the damaging effects of degraded lands and poor soil fertility (UN/ISDR, 2009:12). This definition brings to the lime light that „exposure‟

to risk also occurs on the „internal side‟ side of „vulnerability‟ that essentially deals with coping with a hazard. Birkman (2006:19) illustrates this in his explanation that

„exposure‟ in social vulnerability debate goes beyond physical exposure and embodies features related to the entitlement theory and human ecology perspective. Hence, exposure also deals with social and institutional processes that may increase defencelessness (Ibid.), or increase coping or defence capability. Hence, such processes alter exposure of the household to risk (Cannon et al., 2003; in Birkman, 2006: 19). In totality, the conceptual framework that guides the analysis in this chapter draws on the

„double structure of vulnerability‟. Vulnerability requires examining both exposure to risks and coping capacity to „hazard‟ (Birkman, 2006:19).

In the Atankwidi basin, every farmer I spoke to cited poor soil fertility as a major environmental factor hindering food crop production. In a survey covering 131 farmers in the basin across three study communities Yua, Mirigu and Pungu, I decided to find out

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how they rank³⁶ poor soil fertility relative to four other environmental factors that affect crop production. The majority of farmers agree that poor soil fertility adversely impacts on household food crop production the most. Low soil fertility can result from low inherent soil fertility, but it can also result from land degradation due to intensive land use combined with inadequate conservation measures (van der Geest, 2004:66). Farmer perspectives on the causes of poor soil fertility generally conform to the latter school of thought. Most farmers recount good times of fertile soils and harvest during the era of their fathers and grandfathers. They recount that soils were relatively more fertile then and surplus production was possible. In the Nandom area of the UWR, van der Geest reports of similar findings among farmers (Ibid.). This widespread perception among farmers that soils were more fertile in the past suggests that poor soil fertility today is the outcome of land mining. However, the geological formation and development of top soils in the area [UER] suggests that there is an element of low inherent soil fertility although soils may have been more fertile in the past than they are now. According to Kranjac-Berisavljevic et al. (1999), the parent rock material of the area are granites and that soils that developed over them have a low inherent fertility status. Soils formed from granites are characterised as sandy, moderately acid and infertile, and very often the most weathered and infertile soils in tropical savannahs (Tropical Savannahs CRC, 1998).

These features tend to inhibit penetration of roots and plant growth, especially trees (Duadze, 2004). Much of the Upper Regions of Ghana [UER and UWR] have „granite‟

parental soil and that ground water laterites and patches of savannah ochrosols developed as the top soils (van der Geest, 2004:82). Thus, van der Geest cites Boateng as having characterized these groundwater laterites as:

Pale coloured, sandy or salty loam with a depth of up to two feet underlain by a mottled clayey layer rich in iron. The soils harden to form an ironpan on exposure because of the rich iron content. The soils have a poor drainage and tend to easily saturate causing water logging during the raining season and dry out during the dry season. These soils,

36The results show that 34% of the farmers (45 out of 131) ranked poor soil fertility as impacting crop yields the most.

This was followed by 29% of farmers (40 out of 131) citing heavy rainfall and 23 % (30 out of 131) citing drought as the most impacting factors causing poor crop yields.

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especially those developed on the Voltain shales, are considered among the poorest soils in Ghana (Boateng, 1966:60; in van der Geest, 2004:83).

Similarly, MoFA describes soils in the Upper East Region as:

Predominantly, light textured surface horizons sandy loams that are very poor in organic matter content. They have lower soil horizon and slightly heavier textures varying from coarse sandy loams to clays. Heavier textured soils occur in many valley bottoms which are suitable for rice cultivation. Many soils contain abundant coarse material either gravel and stone, or concretionary materials which affect their physical properties, particularly their water holding capacity (MoFA, 2008).

In Chapter 2, I have done a more detail discussion on the geological and soil formation in northern Ghana. Although low soil fertility may be inherent in the soils of the study area, soil fertility has declined considerably over time due to human activities. For the entire northern Ghana including the Atankwidi basin, a combination of intensive cultivation, inadequate soil conservation, bush burning, over grazing, tree felling, charcoal burning and soil erosion have all lead to land degradation and poor soil fertility (Songsore, 1996;

Blench, 1999; van der Geest, 2004; Laube, 2007).

Poor soil fertility and unreliable rainfall lead to poor crop yields in the Atankwidi basin.

In the survey, 76% of farmers reported that their annual harvest is inadequate to meet annual household consumption needs. Poor soils and unreliable rains often top the list of causes from the perspective of farmers. A majority of farmers (76%) reported

„decreasing‟ trends in household food crop output while (24%) reported of „mixed trends‟

(increases and decreases) in output experiences. Perceptions of „output declines‟ among farmers are not peculiar to farmers in the Atankwidi basin. According to van der Geest (2004:66), farmers in the Nandom area of the UWR attribute declines in crop yields to soil infertility and worsening climatic conditions. The relation between poor soil fertility and poor crop yields is undisputable. A comparative analysis of crop yields (maize and guinea corn) between the Sissala District and Lawra District in the UWR revealed that yields were lower in the former because of poorer soil fertility there (Ibid.:83-84). In

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Malawi over-exploitation of the natural soil fertility in the production of a hybrid, maize variety throughout the early 1990s eventually resulted in soil fertility mining. Hence, soil fertility declined to levels that could no longer support crop output at a rate required to feed the growing population (Tchale et al., 2005). Poor resource endowments including poor land quality and an inappropriate policy environment undermine agriculture development (World Bank, 2000; in Rosegrant et al, 2001:37). This has been a major cause of inadequate food production in the Developing World. In general, Sub-Saharan Africa finds itself with high population and food demand growth exceeding modest production growth (Byerlee and Eicher, 1997). Also, see Rosegrant et al. (2001: 37).

In the ensuing discussion, I will examine how households use local knowledge systems of soil conservation for reducing vulnerability of food crop production to land degradation and soil infertility in the Atankwidi basin.