The Dagara farmer at home and away: migration, environment and development in Ghana

Will people in drylands be forced to migrate due to climate change and environmental degradation? And what impact does migration have on the environment and development in the migrants' home and destination areas? These are some of the questions this study tries to answer. Based on local case study material among the Dagara people of Northwest Ghana and regional analyses of migration propensities and environmental scarcity, this study shows that structural differences in agro-ecological conditions - rather than degradation and disaster - are a principal cause of Dagara migration. The study further challenges alarming findings about deforestation and land degradation as a result of Dagara migration into the Brong Ahafo Region. Lastly, it shows that in the short term out-migration contributes to food and livelihood security in the home area, but in the long run it seems to thwart a transition to more sustainable land use and livelihoods and hamper rural development.

[1]  Danilo Mandić.  West Africa , 2020, Gangsters and Other Statesmen.

[2]  J. McGregor.  Context , 2018, J. Object Technol..

[3]  J. Hollifield,et al.  Theorizing Migration in Anthropology: The Social Construction of Networks, Identities, Communities, and Globalscapes , 2013 .

[4]  Z. Xue.  Preface , 2011 .

[5]  K. Geest.  North-South Migration in Ghana: What Role for the Environment? , 2011 .

[6]  Graham Scott,et al.  The numbers game. , 2010, Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987).

[7]  Kees van der Geest,et al.  Local Perceptions Of Migration From North-West Ghana , 2010, Africa.

[8]  W. Landman.  Climate change 2007: the physical science basis , 2010 .

[9]  F. Wouterse.  Remittances, Poverty, Inequality and Welfare: Evidence from the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso , 2010 .

[10]  H. Haas,et al.  Migration and Development: A Theoretical Perspective , 2010, The International migration review.

[11]  William Oduro,et al.  Changes in Beliefs and Perceptions About the Natural Environment in the Forest-Savanna Transitional Zone of Ghana: The Influence of Religion , 2010 .

[12]  C. Tacoli.  Crisis or adaptation? Migration and climate change in a context of high mobility , 2009 .

[13]  Florian Znaniecki,et al.  The Polish peasant in Europe and America; monograph of an immigrant group , 2009 .

[14]  L. Stringer.  Africa: Atlas of our changing environment, united nations environment programme (UNEP). UNEP, Nairobi, 2008. ISBN: 9789280728712, xviii + 374 pp , 2009 .

[15]  H. Haas.  Mobility and Human Development , 2009 .

[16]  C. Gray,et al.  Environment, Land, and Rural Out-migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes , 2009 .

[17]  R. Black,et al.  RETURN MIGRATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN GHANA AND CÔTE D’IVOIRE: THE ROLE OF CAPITAL TRANSFERS , 2009 .

[18]  吕一旭 Yixu Lu.  引言 (Introduction) , 2009, Provincial China.

[19]  G. Hugo.  Migration, development and environment , 2008 .

[20]  F. Gemenne,et al.  Defining 'environmental migration' , 2008 .

[21]  J. Page,et al.  The Impact of Remittances on Poverty and Inequality in Ghana , 2008 .

[22]  Jennifer A. Peeples.  The politics of the Earth: Environmental discourses , 2008, Politics and the Life Sciences.

[23]  A. Berry.  GROWTH, EMPLOYMENT AND DISTRIBUTION IMPACTS OF MINERALS DEPENDENCY: FOUR CASE STUDIES , 2008 .

[24]  Liming Zhou,et al.  Empirical Evidence for Impacts of Internal Migration on Vegetation Dynamics in China from 1982 to 2000 , 2008, Sensors.

[25]  R. Pontius,et al.  Identifying Systematic Land-Cover Transitions Using Remote Sensing and GIS: The Fate of Forests inside and outside Protected Areas of Southwestern Ghana , 2008 .

[26]  V. Mazzucato,et al.  Remittances in Ghana: Origin, destination and issues of measurement , 2008 .

[27]  Mirjam Kabki.  Transnationalism, local development and social security : the functioning of support networks in rural Ghana , 2007 .

[28]  R. Bening,et al.  Ideology, Regionalism, Self-Interest and Tradition: An Investigation into Contemporary Politics in Northern Ghana , 2007, Africa.

[29]  K. Amanor,et al.  Space, Time, Rhetoric and Agricultural Change in the Transition Zone of Ghana , 2007 .

[30]  J. Taylor,et al.  Migration and Income Diversification Evidence from Burkina Faso , 2006 .

[31]  Leonard V. Smith,et al.  Transnational migration and the economy of funerals: Changing practices in Ghana , 2006 .

[32]  A. Whitehead.  Persistent poverty in North East Ghana , 2006 .

[33]  S. Codjoe.  Migrant versus indigenous farmers. An analysis of factors affecting agricultural land use in the transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana, 1984–2000 , 2006 .

[34]  C. Tucker,et al.  Recent trends in vegetation dynamics in the African Sahel and their relationship to climate , 2005 .

[35]  Isidore Lobnibe.  Forbidden Fruit in the Compound: A Case Study of Migration, Spousal Separation and Group-Wife Adultery in Northwest Ghana , 2005, Africa.

[36]  J. Ardö,et al.  A recent greening of the Sahel—trends, patterns and potential causes , 2005 .

[37]  C. Reij,et al.  Changing land management practices and vegetation on the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso (1968-2002) , 2005 .

[38]  H. Haas,et al.  International migration, remittances and development: myths and facts , 2005 .

[39]  Edwin W. Pak,et al.  An extended AVHRR 8‐km NDVI dataset compatible with MODIS and SPOT vegetation NDVI data , 2005 .

[40]  Edward R. Carr,et al.  Placing the Environment in Migration: Environment, Economy, and Power in Ghana's Central Region , 2005 .

[41]  C. Leeuwis,et al.  Land tenure and differential soil fertility management practices among native and migrant farmers in Wenchi, Ghana: implications for interdisciplinary action research , 2004 .

[42]  Jin Chen,et al.  A simple method for reconstructing a high-quality NDVI time-series data set based on the Savitzky-Golay filter , 2004 .

[43]  Anette Reenberg,et al.  Historical footprints in contemporary land use systems: forest cover changes in savannah woodlands in the Sudano-Sahelian zone , 2003 .

[44]  E. Lambin,et al.  Descriptive Analysis of the Individual Migratory Pathways According to Environmental Typologies , 2003 .

[45]  J. Post,et al.  The impact of decentralised forest management on charcoal production practices in Eastern Senegal , 2003 .

[46]  Simon Dalby.  Book Review Essay: Conflict, Ecology and the Politics of Environmental Security , 2002, Global Environmental Politics.

[47]  R. Oostendorp,et al.  Explaining a miracle. Intensification and the Transition Towards Sustainable Small-Scale Agriculture in Dryland Machakos and Kitui Districts, Kenya , 2002 .

[48]  D. Bates.  Environmental Refugees? Classifying Human Migrations Caused by Environmental Change , 2002 .

[49]  C. J. Mbamaonyeukwu.  Ghana's Reproductive Revolution: Analysis of the Determinants of Fertility Transition , 2002 .

[50]  D. Niemeijer,et al.  Population Growth and the Environment in Africa: Local Informal Institutions, the Missing Link* , 2002 .

[51]  J. W. Bruce,et al.  The causes of land-use and land-cover change: moving beyond the myths , 2001 .

[52]  W. Neil Adger,et al.  ADVANCING A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSES , 2001 .

[53]  William M. Adams,et al.  Farmer adaptation, change and ‘crisis’ in the Sahel , 2001 .

[54]  J. Cour.  The Sahel in West Africa: countries in transition to a full market economy , 2001 .

[55]  T. Malthus.  Essay on the Principle of Population , 2001 .

[56]  Thomas Faist,et al.  The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces , 2000 .

[57]  M. Leach,et al.  Challenging Neo-Malthusian Deforestation Analyses in West Africa's Dynamic Forest Landscapes , 2000 .

[58]  A. Tengan.  Hoe-farming and social relations among the Dagara of Northwestern Ghana and Southwestern Burkina Faso , 2000 .

[59]  C. Lentz.  Of Hunters, Goats and Earth-Shrines: Settlement Histories and the Politics of Oral Tradition in Northern Ghana , 2000, History in Africa.

[60]  A. Haan.  Livelihoods and poverty: The role of migration ‐ a critical review of the migration literature , 1999 .

[61]  J. Oates.  Myth and Reality in the Rain Forest: How Conservation Strategies Are Failing in West Africa , 1999 .

[62]  S. Batterbury.  Hoe and Wage: A social history of a circular migration system in West Africa , 1999 .

[63]  Simon Batterbury,et al.  Environmental histories, access to resources and landscape change: an introduction , 1999 .

[64]  S. Rozelle,et al.  Migration remittances and agricultural productivity in China. , 1999 .

[65]  J. Ribot,et al.  A history of fear: imagining deforestation in the West African dryland forests , 1999 .

[66]  J. Taylor,et al.  The new economics of labour migration and the role of remittances in the migration process. , 1999, International migration.

[67]  L. Awanyo.  Culture, Markets, and Agricultural Production: A Comparative Study of the Investment Patterns of Migrant and Citizen Cocoa Farmers in the Western Region of Ghana , 1998 .

[68]  Stephen D. Prince,et al.  Evidence from rain‐use efficiencies does not indicate extensive Sahelian desertification , 1998 .

[69]  Susanne Davies,et al.  Adaptable Livelihoods: Coping With Food Insecurity in the Malian Sahel , 1998 .

[70]  H. Haas,et al.  Migration and Development in Southern Morocco. The Disparate Socio-Economic Impacts of Out-Migration on the Todgha Oasis valley , 1998 .

[71]  T. Painter,et al.  New Land is Not Enough: Agricultural Performance of New Lands Settlement in West Africa , 1998 .

[72]  Seth Afikorah-Danquah.  Local resource management in the forest-savanna transition zone: the case of Wenchi District, Ghana. , 1997 .

[73]  Philip Martin,et al.  The anatomy of a migration hump , 1996 .

[74]  G. Hugo.  Environmental Concerns and International Migration , 1996, The International migration review.

[75]  J. Eades,et al.  Strangers and Traders: Yoruba Migrants, Markets and the State in Northern Ghana , 1995 .

[76]  Akorlie A. Nyatepe-Coo.  Dutch Disease, government policy and import demand in Nigeria , 1994 .

[77]  Francis N. Gichuki,et al.  More People, Less Erosion: Environmental Recovery in Kenya , 1994 .

[78]  Graeme Hugo,et al.  Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal. , 1993 .

[79]  R. Black.  Migration, Return, and Agricultural Development in the Serra Do Alvão, Northern Portugal , 1993, Economic Development and Cultural Change.

[80]  H. Rubenstein.  Migration, development and remittances in rural Mexico. , 1992, International migration.

[81]  R. Bilsborrow,et al.  Population growth, internal migration, and environmental degradation in rural areas of developing countries , 1992, European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie.

[82]  Heiko Körner,et al.  The Migration of Labor. , 1992 .

[83]  D. Cleveland.  Migration in West Africa: a savanna village prespective , 1991, Africa.

[84]  M. Mortimore,et al.  Adapting to Drought: Farmers, Famines and Desertification in West Africa , 1990 .

[85]  J. T. Fawcett,et al.  Networks, Linkages, and Migration Systems , 1989, The International migration review.

[86]  R. Appleyard.  Migration and Development: Myths and Reality , 1989, The International migration review.

[87]  N. Shrestha,et al.  A structural perspective on labour migration in underdeveloped countries , 1988 .

[88]  R. Bilsborrow.  Population pressures and agricultural development in developing countries: A conceptual framework and recent evidence , 1987 .

[89]  Paul Richards,et al.  Indigenous Agricultural Revolution. Ecology and Food Production in West Africa , 1986 .

[90]  S. Aberg,et al.  [The population explosion]. , 1984, Katilolehti.

[91]  K. Swindell.  Farmers, traders, and labourers: dry season migration from north-west Nigeria, 1900–33 , 1984, Africa.

[92]  N. V. Hear.  Child Labour and the Development of Capitalist Agriculture in Ghana , 1982 .

[93]  A. Zolberg,et al.  Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor and Industrial Societies. , 1981 .

[94]  L. Mair.  Chiefs and Politicians: The Politics of Regionalism in Northern Ghana , 1980 .

[95]  Nii-K. Plange,et al.  Underdevelopment in Northern Ghana: natural causes or colonial capitalism? , 1979 .

[96]  A. Portes.  Migration and Underdevelopment , 1978 .

[97]  F. Cerase,et al.  Expectations and Reality: A Case Study of Return Migration from the United States to Southern Italy * , 1974, The International migration review.

[98]  Polly Hill.  The migrant cocoa-farmers of southern Ghana , 1973 .

[99]  Roger G. Thomas,et al.  Forced Labour in British West Africa: The Case of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast 1906–1927 , 1973, The Journal of African History.

[100]  J. Goody,et al.  The Social Organisation of the LoWiili , 1968 .

[101]  Ester Boserup,et al.  The conditions of agricultural growth: The economics of agrarian change under population pressure , 1966 .

[102]  T. E. Hilton.  Ghana Population Atlas. The Distribution and Density of Population in the Gold Coast and Togoland under United Kingdom Trusteeship , 1962 .

[103]  A. K. Geddes,et al.  The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs. , 1929 .

[104]  Kees van der Geest,et al.  Migration and environment in Ghana: a cross-district analysis of human mobility and vegetation dynamics , 2010 .

[105]  R. Harding.  The Gold Coast , 2011 .

[106]  K. V. D. Geest.  Migration agricole et usages durables de la terre dans la zone de transition forêt-savane (Ghana) , 2010 .

[107]  Roger Zetter,et al.  Protecting People displaced by Climate Change : some Conceptual Challenges , 2010 .

[108]  Isidore Lobnibe.  Of 'jong' migrants and 'Jongsecans': understanding contemporary rural out-migration from Northwest Ghana , 2010 .

[109]  R. Oostendorp,et al.  Farm- and household-level drivers of agricultural innovation in Machakos and Kitui Districts, Kenya , 2009 .

[110]  I. Luginaah,et al.  Environment, Migration and Food Security in the Upper West Region of Ghana , 2009 .

[111]  K. Geest.  A LITERATURE SURVEY ABOUT RISK AND VULNERABILITY IN DRYLANDS , WITH A FOCUS ON THE SAHEL , 2009 .

[112]  A. K. Bos,et al.  Optimistic determinism or explaining a miracle , 2009 .

[113]  Gariba B. Abdul-Korah.  'Ka Bie Ba Yor': labor migration among the Dagaaba of the Upper West Region of Ghana, 1936-1957 , 2008 .

[114]  R. D. Jeu,et al.  Climate change and displacement: Ghana , 2008 .

[115]  Gariba B. Abdul-Korah.  ‘Where Is Not Home?’: Dagaaba migrants in the Brong Ahafo Region, 1980 to the present , 2007 .

[116]  F. Ruf.  The cocoa sector : Expansion, or green and double green revolutions , 2007 .

[117]  Academisch Proefschrift,et al.  Tied to migrants : transnational influences on the economy of Accra, Ghana , 2007 .

[118]  K. Warner,et al.  Control, adapt or flee: how to face environmental migration? , 2007 .

[119]  Victor Owusu.  Migrants, Income and the Environment: the Case of Rural Ghana , 2007 .

[120]  A. Muller.  Human Development Report 2006 , 2006 .

[121]  S. Adjei-Nsiah.  Cropping systems, land tenure and social diversity in Wenchi, Ghana: implications for soil fertility management , 2006 .

[122]  A. B. Asiedu,et al.  Some benefits of migrants' return visits to Ghana , 2005 .

[123]  E. Attua,et al.  Spatio-temporal differentiation of land-use/cover changes and natural resource management , 2005 .

[124]  M. D. Bruijn,et al.  The Importancce of Socio-Cultural Differences and of Pathway Analysis for Understanding Local Actors’ Responses , 2004 .

[125]  Gariba B. Abdul-Korah.  Migration, ethnicity and uneven-development in Ghana : the case of the Upper West region in the twentieth century , 2004 .

[126]  S. Harding,et al.  Trinidad, Brazil, and Ghana: Three Melting Moments in the History of Cocoa , 2004 .

[127]  K. Geest,et al.  Sahelian livelihoods on the rebound. A critical analysis of rainfall drought index and yields in Sahelian agriculture , 2004 .

[128]  M. D. Bruijn,et al.  Urban-Rural Linkages and Climatic Variability , 2004 .

[129]  O. Stark.  Tales of Migration without Wage Differentials: Individual, Family, and Community Contexts , 2003 .

[130]  A. Mensah-Bonsu.  Migration and Environmental Pressure in Northern Ghana , 2003 .

[131]  G. Nooteboom.  A Matter of Style: Social Security and Livelihood in Upland East Java, Indonesia , 2003 .

[132]  S. van der Geest,et al.  Respect and reciprocity: Care of elderly people in rural Ghana , 2002, Journal of cross-cultural gerontology.

[133]  Ninna Nyberg-Sorensen,et al.  The Migration-Development Nexus Evidence and Policy Options State-of-the-Art Overview , 2002 .

[134]  P. Foy,et al.  Sample Design , 2001 .

[135]  Van Til,et al.  Population mobility in Africa : an overview , 2001 .

[136]  H. Haas.  Migration, Development and Agricultural Change in the South-Moroccan Todgha Valley , 2001 .

[137]  R. Crook.  Cocoa Booms, the Legalisation of Land Relations and Politics in Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana: Explaining Farmers' Responses , 2001 .

[138]  R. Ruben,et al.  The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands, with a Focus on West Africa , 2001 .

[139]  A. Haan,et al.  Migration and livelihoods: case studies in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mali. , 2000 .

[140]  D. Niemeijer,et al.  Rethinking soil and water conservation in a changing society : a case study in eastern Burkina Faso , 2000 .

[141]  L. deHaan,et al.  The question of development and environment in geography in the era of globalisation , 2000 .

[142]  A. Abdulai,et al.  Internal Migration and Agricultural Development in Ghana , 1999 .

[143]  M. Leach,et al.  Reframing Deforestation: Global Analyses and Local Realities: Studies in West Africa , 1998 .

[144]  R. E. Dumett,et al.  The slave trade in northern Ghana , 1998 .

[145]  P. Blaikie.  Paradigms for environment and development , 1998 .

[146]  I. Scoones.  Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis , 1998 .

[147]  S. Hawkins.  To Pray or Not To Pray: Politics, Medicine, and Conversion among the LoDagaa of Northern Ghana, 1929-1939 , 1997 .

[148]  M. Leach,et al.  Rethinking the forest-savanna mosaic: colonial science and its relics in West Africa. , 1996 .

[149]  M. Tiffen.  Population Density, Economic Growth and Societies in Transition: Boserup Reconsidered in a Kenyan Case‐study , 1995 .

[150]  N. Myers,et al.  Environmental Exodus: An Emergent Crisis in the Global Arena , 1995 .

[151]  R. David,et al.  Changing places? Women, resource management and migration in the Sahel: case studies from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali and Sudan. , 1995 .

[152]  K. Twumasi-Ankrah.  Rural-urban migration and socioeconomic development in Ghana: some discussions. , 1995, Journal of social development in Africa.

[153]  A. Suhrke.  Environmental Degradation and Population Flows , 1994 .

[154]  E. Gyasi,et al.  Rural-Urban Migration in Ghana: The Case of Likpe Seasonal Migrant Rice Farmers , 1992 .

[155]  N. O. Addo,et al.  Short-term circular migration in the context of socio-economic development in rural Ghana: the case of rice farmers in some selected rural communities in the north-eastern volta region , 1990 .

[156]  I. Sutton.  Colonial Agricultural Policy: The Non-Development of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast , 1989 .

[157]  M. Watts.  State, oil, and agriculture in Nigeria , 1987 .

[158]  M. Kearney.  From the invisible hand to visible feet: anthropological studies of migration and development. , 1986, Annual review of anthropology.

[159]  E. Engmann.  Population of Ghana, 1850-1960 , 1986 .

[160]  K. Baker.  The Political Economy of West African Agriculture , 1984 .

[161]  A. Shepherd.  Agrarian Change in Northern Ghana: Public Investment, Capitalist Farming and Famine , 1981 .

[162]  A. Oberai,et al.  Migration, remittances and rural development: findings of a case study in the Indian Punjab. , 1980, International labour review.

[163]  M. Lipton.  Migration from rural areas of poor countries: The impact on rural productivity and income distribution , 1980 .

[164]  S. Quansah.  The Gonja settlement and development scheme: Ghana , 1971 .

[165]  J. J. Holden.  The Zabarima Conquest of North-West Ghana. Part One , 1965 .

[166]  H. P. White,et al.  The geography of Ghana , 1958 .