Chapter 9 - Access to and control over resources in urban agriculture in Tamale, Ghana

Abstract

Due to rapid urbanization in developing regions of Africa and Asia, urban agriculture is expected to play a significant role in feeding the city's populations and improving the populations' nutritional status and well-being. Land insecurity and shortage, water scarcity, and plural land tenure systems influence urban agricultural activities in the city. Through ethnographic fieldwork from 2013 to 2015, we discovered that urban agriculture still thrives in Tamale even though it is illegal. Farmers rely on their sociopolitical, religious, and economic networks to access and control vital resources such as land, water, and seed. The heterogeneity in institutional interests explains the overlaps and disputes in farmer access and control over water and land. The abundance of institutions involved in agriculture in and around Tamale influences municipal policy frameworks that provide opportunities and challenges to promoting urban and peri-urban agriculture. However, overlaps or lack of coherence in policy framework adversely affects the functioning of urban agriculture systems.