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8/7/2019 Sustainable Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Accra, Roman Down Ashaiman
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SUSTAINABLE URBAN AND PERI-URBAN
AGRICULTURE IN ACCRA
MSc ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
DPU FIELDTRIP MAY 2010
JUNE 2010
ROMAN DOWN
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
05 Chapter
Next Steps
Strategies and Acon Plans
Monitoring and Evaluaon
06 Chapter
Conclusions
Appendices
Field work plan
Execuve summary appendix 1,2,3,4
Methodology appendixMicro ndings appendix 1,2
Room for manoeuvre appendix 1
Monitoring and evaluaon appendix 1,2
Miscellaneous appendix 1,2
Preface
Abbreviaons
Execuve Summary
01 Chapter
Introducon
Objecves
General background
02 Chapter
Research approachMethodology
Contribuons and Constraints
03 Chapter
Theorecal Approach
Dening Sustainable Urban and Peri-Urban
Agriculture (SUPA)
Research Focus
Theorecal Frameworks
04 Chapter
Findings
Micro-situaonal
Macro-situaonalIdenfying Room for Manoeuvre
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
This report was prepared by Roman Down group:
Natan Doron
Rylan Henriques
Sara Henry
Rita Lambert
Nidhi Mial
Michael RobertsTaanna Rodrigues
Juichiro Sahara
Daniel Vargas
Ma Wood-Hill
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
PREFACE
The Ashaiman Roman Down acknowledges the
contribuons of the various lecturers, experts and
organisaons who contributed and connue to con-
tribute to this research project in Ghana. A special
menon needs to be made of the contribuon made
by Mr. Nii Ofoe Hansen, the Scheme Manager of the
Irrigaon Development Authority who facilitated
eld research for the team. The Ashaiman Municipal
Assembly, the Ashaiman Stool, the MoFA director
Mr. Sam Nukpor, have all been instrumental in thisproject. This was all made possible by the farmers
of the Roman Down site, to whom this group is
extremely grateful. The DPU Sta, in parcular
Alex Frediani, Adriana Allen, Pascale Homan and
Rita Valencia have been of tremendous assistance
throughout this project. Addionally, the research
conducted by the Ashaiman Group in 2009 was an
invaluable resource in the undertaking of this
project.
Roman Down.
God’s Power.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
ABBREVIATIONS
AFUP
AMA
AshMA
AWGUPA
CBO
CICOL
CSO
DCMC
DOCDPU
DTCP
EPA
GIDA
GFUP
GLC
GWCL
IDA
IDCILGS
IWMI
JICA
LAC
MDG
MoFA
MPCU
NDPC
NGO
PRA
RD
RUAF
RUWCDA
SUPA
UA
TOR
WHO
WMD
Ashaiman Federaon of the Urban Poor
Accra Metropolitan Assembly
Ashaiman Municipal Assembly
Accra Working Group on Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture
Community-based Organizaon
Civil Society for Coalion on Land
Civil Society Organizaon
District Cizens Monitoring Commiee
Department of CooperavesDevelopment Planning Unit
Department of Town and Country Planning
Environmental Protecon Agency
Ghana Irrigaon Development Authority
Ghana Federaon of the Urban Poor
Ghana Lands Commission
Ghana Water Company Ltd
Irrigaon Development Authority (same as GIDA)
Irrigaon Development CentreInstute of Local Government Studies
Internaonal Water Management Instute
Japan Internaonal Cooperaon Agency
Land Allocaon Commiee
Millennium Development Goals
Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Ashaiman Municipal Policy and Coordinaon Unit
Naonal Development Planning Commission
Non-Governmental Organizaon
Parcipatory Rapid Appraisal
Roman Down
Resource centres on urban agriculture and food security
Rural Urban Women and Children Development Agency
Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban agriculture
Urban Agriculture
Terms of Reference
World Health Organizaon
Waste Management Department
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Roman Down site in Ashaiman, a Peri-Urban
area of Greater Accra, Ghana provides fruiul
grounds for research in relaon to:
• The growing importance of Urban and Peri-Ur-
ban Agriculture in Ghana (appendix 1)
• Formal and informal land use
• The potenals for collecve acon in increasing
polical parcipaon
• Rapid urbanizaon and the Peri-Urban interface(appendix 2)
• The unexpected consequences of planned inter-
venons (appendix 3)
• The issue of encroachments (appendix 4)
As the background secon will highlight, the Roman
Down farmers cooperave funcons in a context of
insecure land tenure, threat from encroachments
and a complex web of power relaons involving tra-
dional and governmental authories.
Despite having farmed the area for over 40 years,
the Roman Down farmers cooperave have endured
misrecognion at various intervals from both the
government and the tradional council. The con-
text in which the farmers operate has been radical-
ly overturned in the last few decades due to rapid
urban growth and a surge in land prices. With the
growing recognion of the role of Urban Agriculture
(appendix 1) in the future of Greater Accra, Roman
Down is now very much a point of conict. The sites’
status as a ood plain further complicates an already
contenous issue.
This report proposed that improved capacity for col-
lecve acon would be a crucial instrumental tool to
enhance the capacity of the Roman Down farmers
cooperave to advocate their posion in the context
of land use in Ashaiman. This procedural approach
was enriched by normave principles drawn from
the vast literature on Environmental Jusce.
Consequently, the ndings presented in this report
produced a host of strategies based upon increas-ing the strength of collecve acon within the co-
operave as well as expanding their room for ma-
neuver within the instuonal and social context
of Ashaiman. These strategies aempt to take into
consideraon the expanding civil society network
within Ashaiman as well as the important role which
informal development plays in determining land use
in the area.
These strategies and the ndings which upon they
are based seek to provide a fresh approach to the
study of Urban and Peri-Urban agriculture in Gha-
na. Through the use of an innovave theorecal
approach and community empowerment-focused
methodology it is hoped that lessons from the case
of Roman Down may help develop the debate sur-
rounding Urban and Peri-Urban agriculture through-
out the globe and provide useful direcons for fur-
ther research.
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01 CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
CASE STUDY- ROMAN DOWN
Our case study is located in the Municipality of As-
haiman, which is part of the Greater Accra Region
(gure 1.1) Before 2008 this area belonged to the
Tema Metropolitan District.
Tema was developed during the early sixes with
the aim to alleviate the pressure on Accra City; the
land of Tema was acquired by the Government of
Ghana in 1952 from three Tradional Councils. In
the planning of the city of Tema, about 9 km² of land
was set-aside for agricultural purposes. (Boakye,
2008; Grant & Yankson, 2003 ).
The land of RD formally belongs to The Irrigaon
Development Authority (IDA) (gure 1.2), accordingto Boakye, the farmers in RD have no formal tenure
agreement with the IDA but they are allowed to ir-
rigate their farms with water from the dam free of
charge using their own irrigaon equipment on con-
dion that they keep the area around the catchment
of the dam clean and forested to prevent blockage
and silng of the tributaries supplying water to the
OBJECTIVESGeneral Objecve:
The objecve of this study is to analyse the achieve-
ments, obstacles and potenal intervenons in the
development of sustainable urban and peri-urban
agriculture(SUPA) in the Greater Accra Region, Gha-
na. This report is based on the specic case of Ro-
man Down (RD) farmers, in the Municipality of As-
haiman.
Specic Objecves:
• Idenfy the condions/threats and actual/po-
tenal benets from agriculture in the Roman
Down as is perceived by the dierent
stakeholders.
• Recognise the main improvements in the devel-
opment of the agriculture in Roman Down, the
process to achieve those, and the stakeholders
involved.
• Develop strategic intervenons to promote sus-
tainable peri-urban agriculture in RD and more
widely in Greater Accra Region.
TEMA
ASHAIMAN
TEMA
HABOUR
IDA RESERVOIR
AND IRRIGATION
SCHEME
Figure 1.2: Aerial Map showing Ashaiman and Tema
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
dam (Boakye, 2008).
Roman Down Site is an area of land approximate-
ly 0,22 km² in which 60 farmers operate. In 2005,
50% of these farmers formalised into a coopera-
ve known as “Ashaiman Roman Down Cooperave
Farmers Society”.
Roman Down Site (gure 1.3), is a piece of land of approximately 0,22 km2 in which 60 farmers oper-
ate. In 2005, 50% of these farmers formalised into a
cooperave known as “Ashaiman Roman Down Co-
operave Farmers Society”.
TRADITIONAL COUNCIL
In the original design of TDC, the area of Ashaiman
was set aside for the residenal development of the
industrial labourers of Tema. According to Dr Odame
Larbi, Acng Execuve Secretary of the Land Com-mission, this area –Ashaiman- was acquired from
the Kpone Tradional Council, and of the three tra-
dional councils of Ashaiman, it was the only one
compensated (1) The consequences of incomplete
compensaon are manifested in the conict around
the land issue today.
ACCRA
TEMA
GA EAST
GA WEST
DANGME WEST
Figure 1.3: Roman Down boundary
Figure 1.1: Locaon of irrigaon scheme
11
REFERENCES
1) Interview with Dr Odame Larbi, May 2010, Accra, Ghana
2) Boakye, S., 2008, “Sustaining urban farming: Explaining why
farmers make investment in the absence of secure tenure with
new evidence from Ghana”, DSA Conference 2008 Paper.
3) Grant, R. & Yankson, P., 2003, “City prole: Accra”, Cies, Vol.
20, No. 1, p. 65–74, 2003
ROMAN
DOWN
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02 CHAPTER
RESEARCH APPROACH
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Figure 2.1: Transect walk along boundary of site
Figure 2.2: Focus groups with Roman Down Farm-
ers
Figure 2.3: Planery with GIDA and Roman Down
Farmers
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
January – April 2010 May 1st - 14th 2010 May 19th – June 4th
The work began in January 2010
in London with an extensive liter-
ature review including the project
undertaken by a previous group
of DPU students last year which
covered both the Roman Down
and the GIDA sites in Ashaiman.
In addion, the students also had
numerous lectures from academ-
ics and eld workers engaged in
a variety of capacies relang to
Urban Agriculture and/or poli-
cal/social/economic condions
in Ghana.
Two weeks of intense eld work in Ghana
itself, including four visits to the Roman
Down site during which the group under-
took:
• numerous focus groups (g 2.2, 3, 5),
• informal interviews,
• transect walks (g 2.1, 4)
• parcipatory mapping exercises
bringing the students into contact with
over 57 farmers.
The me that the group had in the eld
was also spent aending numerous lec-
tures from key stakeholders represenng
government bodies, private sector actors,
civil society organisaons as well as aca-
demic research groups.
• Data processing
• analysis
• formang
This phase produced a nal
presentaon for academic
partners at the DPU in Lon-
don as well as this report.
Table 2.2: Field trip Methodology- May 04-13, 2010
As the table 2.2 below showcases, the group em-
ployed a range of qualitave and parcipatory meth-
ods yielding a large amount of data which shall be
represented in the ‘Findings’ secon of this report.
In line with the principles of parcipatory methods
outlined in appendix 1, the group felt it was impor-
tant to reect upon the methodology used. These
reecons can be found overleaf.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
With a strong focus on parcipatory methods (see
appendix 1) and in close partnership with IWMI, this
project had three disnct phases:
15
Transect Walks 7
Participatory Mapping 2
Semi-Structured Interviews 21
Focus Groups 6
Group Interviews 4
Visioning Workshop 1
Stakeholder Presentations and Q&A 9
Basic Information Survey (Farmers) 37
Transect Walks 7
Participatory Mapping 2
Semi-Structured Interviews 21
Focus Groups 6
Group Interviews 4
Visioning Workshop 1
Stakeholder Presentations and Q&A 9
Basic Information Survey (Farmers) 37
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
gure 2.4: Encroachement mapping
16
Foundaon and walls
on farm land
Complete building on farmland
Mosque
Church
Demolion of houses upstream
along drainage in April 2010Map plong encroachment chronologically
Figure 2.5: Focus group exercise: idencaon of problems with GIDA and Roman Down farmers
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
CONTRIBUTIONS AND CONSTRAINTS.
This study succeeds in providing a deeper body of
knowledge on urban agriculture in the under-re-searched Roman Down site. Aempts have been
made to map the site and individual plots, arculate
the internal workings of the cooperave ( gure 4.2,
4.3) as well as relaonships with civil society net-
works (gure 4.9), and to conduct further analysis of
the tenuous land situaon. A key accomplishment
was facilitang a meeng between Roman Down
and GIDA farmers to establish a common vision for
the future of urban agriculture in Ashaiman. This
culminated in the prospect of an ‘umbrella organisa-
on’ linking the two sites.
Our chief constraint was inevitably the lack of me
in the eld: only two weeks, and four specic site
visits. As these were all concentrated into the same
period (the beginning of the rainy season) this pres-
ents opportunity for research at other mes of
the year. Much of our research was undertaken in
conjuncon with the RD farmers co-operave. It is
likely, therefore, that other groups in the site, such
as non-co-operave farmers and women, are under-
represented in our study.
In addion the varying levels of prociency in Eng-
lish meant that some farmers were more vocal than
others, possibly signifying unequal parcipaon in
discussions. Consultaons with a broader array of
stakeholders, in parcular the Ashaiman township
residents, might be considered in further research.
Finally our own biases as students of environment
and sustainable development, as well as those of
our facilitators, must be acknowledged.
17
Figure 2.6: transect walk on Roman Down
Figure 2.7: Focus group with RD Farmers
Figure 2.8: Focus group with RD Farmers
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03 CHAPTER
THEORETICAL APPROACH
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
DEFINING SUPA
Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture can be seen as
a two-layered Socio-ecological System (SES). More
than a problem of physical resource management,
a SES refers “to a subset of social systems in which
some of the interdependent relaonships among
humans are mediated through interacons with bio-
physical and non-human biological units.” Although
norms for physical processes are integral to sustain-
ability, this denion highlights the importance of
human interdependency as the cornerstone of Sus-
tainable Urban & Peri-urban Agriculture (SUPA).
At the ground-level, the agricultural system itself is
a SES. Issues of land, water, and waste manifest as
direct physical issues with which Roman Down farm-
ers, cooperave members and non-members alikemust collecvely address. At this level, physical and
social dimensions of the SUPA denion rely on the
adopon of norms of physical processes (water use,
waste recycling, preserving soil structure), as well as
social organizaon around key resources.
However, SUPA must necessarily be placed within a
larger SES – the city itself. At the city level, the is-
sue of resource management is enveloped by con-
icts over the complex land-management system
described above. As land-use planning becomes a
more salient issue for the new municipality of As-
haiman, the social and ecological benets of urban
and peri-urban agriculture have been overshad-
owed by other issues of urbanisaon and the com-
peng interest of residenal development. These
urban issues are not disnct from the problemac
addressed by SUPA, but must be fully addressed in
any mainstream denion.
Therefore, creang a nexus of indicators, broadly
dened through their physical, social, and policalelements, produced the group’s working denion
of SUPA. (Figure 3.1)
Figure 3.1- During a collecve exercise with Ashaiman Irrigaon and Roman Down farmers,
we worked to idenfy elements of their denion of SUPA, which corroborated many of thedimensions of our own denion.
20
Access to
Land
Managing
waste
Access to
water
Farming
Pracce
Access to
Market
Unity of
Co-op
Access to
funds
Parcipaon
Farmer’selement
Our element
Ins-
tuonal
support and
integraon
Reduced
impact on
physical re-
sources
Collecve
management
of resources
Knowledge
sharing
Cooperaon
among stake-
holders
Cross-sector
approach
Social
SUPA
PhysicalPolical
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
HYPOTHESES
While a great deal of research has been undertak-
en to address the physical sustainability of urban &
peri-urban agriculture, the social and polical links
by which these issues can be addressed has yet to
be examined in-depth.
By accepng the physical un-sustainability of cur-
rent farming pracces, based on secondary research
and the ndings of the 2009 DPU report, as part
of the problemac rather than an issue for further
study, the group focused its hypotheses on the so-
cial and instuonal opportunies and barriers to
mainstreaming SUPA. ( Figure 3.2)
Figure 3.2- Thought process
21
Physical system of farming in
Ashaiman is naturally unsustainable
At ground level, the sense of
stewardship is missing due to the lack of
consensus on the role of agriculture and its importance
A fragmented sectoral approach and lack
of recognion for other actors in service
provision and policy formaon has led to
an instuonal framework with limited
space for cooperaon and collecve input
Sustainable Urban Agriculture is denied
by a social support system and an
instuonal framework that fully
integrate socially produced agriculture
Therefore,
P OL I T I C A L
P H Y S I C A L
S O C I A
L
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
FRAMEWORK
Focused on the importance of collecve acon to in-
culcate norms of cooperaon, social jusce, and en-
vironmental sustainability, the group developed an
analycal framework that begins at the core social
unit of Roman Down farmers and the ways by which
their pracces interrelate with the broader instu-
onal context.
For inward-looking analysis of the farmers at Roman
Down, the group adapted a raonal choice theory
for collecve acon modeled by Elinor Ostrom
(Figure 3.3).
At the core of this model is the dependence of coop-
eraon, the foundaon of collecve management,
on trust and reciprocity. While a number of vari-ables including reputaon, security, and availability
of informaon are inuences on the development
of trust and reciprocity, the process hinges on the
development of common norms of behaviour, which
dene both physical and social interacons. The an-
alycal benet of this tool is the ability to trace the
exisng norms through their inuence on levels of
trust, reciprocity, and eventual cooperaon while
also idenfying space and opportunity to insll new
modes of behaviour and processes. From the par-
cipatory side, the process allows for arculaon of net benets, which are seen as the driver in propa-
gang the process of cooperaon and collecve ac-
on. The acon of communicang benets, real or
perceived, can both foster the process of collecve
acon and bolster the overall argument for main-
streaming SUPA into the urban agenda.
This model is limited, however, in its capacity to
idenfy and address the instuonal and macro-
social barriers to the long-term inculcaon of collec-
ve management of the SES. By treang instuon-
al adversity as a mere variable in a raonal-choice
model, Ostrom’s theory lacks the normave dimen-
sion necessary to overcome ingrained cultural and
polical barriers that cannot be explained through
pluralism or raonal choice.
As a result, our instuonal analysis was couched
in the broader normave framework of environ-
mental jusce. Applying dimensions of “procedural,
substanve, and distribuve” jusce, environmental
jusce not only pertains to the equitable distribu-
on of environmental services and consequences,but also requires of instuons open and transpar-
ent processes by which producve norms at the
community level can be expressed and appropriated
into the overall urban policy. Distribuve inequies
manifest as symptoms of larger social issues—there-
fore, addressing social and instuonal barriers to
co-producon of space and place must take place
at the intersecon of space for collecve acon and
the inuence of powerful stakeholders.
In order to bridge the collecve space and thebroader instuonal context, the group adopted
the procedural analysis of “room for manoeuvre,”
championed in the work of Caren Levy and Michael
Saer. The aim of room for manoeuvre is to idenfy
the potenal acon space between the aspiraons
of progressive planning pracces and the realies
facing orthodox instuons. This “room for ma-
noeuvre” is analysed along four interrelated dimen-
sions for acon space by which specic barriers and
opportunies can be analysed. (Figure 3.4)
learning and
norm adopng
individuals
Level of trust that
other parcipants
are reciprocators
Level of
cooperaon
Net
benets
Core Relaonships in a Social Dilemma
Figure 3.3- Raonal choice theory for collecve acon by Elinor Ostrom (2)
22
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Figure 3.4- Room for manoeuvre (modied from Saer (4))
Technical & Behavioural
-Technically and operaonally sound, resource-ecient
innovaons
-Flexible response to ‘hot’ confrontaons, the skill of
strategic compromise, tenacity and follow-up
-Behavioural ideas and norms
Strategic
-Appreciang local context and available resources
-”manoeuvrability” of scarce resources away from
centres of power
-Achieving net benets.
I n s t u o n a l & I n
t e r - o r g a n i s a
o n a l
- p o l i c a l r e s p o n s i v e n e s s a n d a g e n c y i n v o l v e m e n t
( p o l i c y / s e r v i c e s )
- I n s t u o n a l c a p a c i t y b u i l d i n g
- D i a l o g u e a n d c o o p e r a o n
S o c i a l r e l a t o n s & m o b i l i s a t o n
- C o m m u n i t y e n g a g e m e n t a n d g o i n g‘ l o c a l ’
- I n c l u d i n g
t h e e x c l u d e d
-B u i l d i n g t r u s t a n d r e c i p r o c i t y
Boundary Limit
Current Limit
Exisng
Acon
Space
3) Agyeman, J., Sustainable Communies and the Chal-
lenge of Environmental Jusce, (New York: NYU Press,
2005).
4) Levy, C (2009) “Urbanisaon without social jusce is
not sustainable.” Pallete, UCL Journal of sustainable cit-
ies; Saer (2004) ; Saer, Michael(2002) ‘On esmang
‘room for manoeuvre’’, City, 6: 1, 117 — 132
23
REFERENCES
1) Anderies, J. M., M. A. Janssen, and E. Ostrom. 2004. A
framework to analyze the robustness of social-ecological
systems from an instuonal perspecve. Ecology and
Society 9(1): 18. [online] URL: hp://www.ecologyandso-
ciety.org/vol9/iss1/art18/
2) Ostrom, E. A Behavioral Approach to the Raonal
Choice Theory of Collecve Acon: Presidenal Address,
American Polical Science Associaon, 1997 Source: TheAmerican Polical Science Review, Vol. 92, No. 1 (Mar.,
1998), pp. 1-22
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
04 CHAPTER
FINDINGS
MICRO
This secon explores the interrelaons between farmers in the Roman
Down site and discusses the role of the co-operave and how farmers
across the site interact with this instuonal presence.
MACRO
This secon reviews the ndings related to the visions of the city in the
context of our Environmental Jusce framework as well as considering the
split between formal and informal development in Ashaiman
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
COMMON PROPERTY REGIME
Using Elinor Ostrom’s behavioural framework as a
basis for analysis (gure 4.1) it is clear that a series
of norms and ideals can be found between farmers
in RD. Discussions with farmers gave the impression
of a harmonious relaonship between individuals
and the existence of established codes of pracce.
These unwrien rules and the uncertainty surround-
ing the ownership of the land (farmers are certainly
appropriators rather than having a claim to tenure)provide evidence that the RD site can be considered
as a self-organised common property regime (CPR).
The resource being managed in this context is that
of the land.
Two of the focus groups during our eldwork fo-
cused on uncovering the established norms and sub-
sequently yielded results that align with Ostrom’s
categories for rules dening common pool resource
dilemmas.[2] These are presented in table 4.2 and
discussed at length in appendix 1 of this secon.
MICRO-SITUATIONAL: NORMS AND RULES OF THE COMMON
PROPERTY REGIME AND THE ROLE OF THE CO-OPERATIVE
learning and
norm adopng
individuals
Level of trust that
other parcipants
are reciprocators
Level of
cooperaon
Net
benets
Core Relaonships in a Social Dilemma
The rules indicate that within the group of farmers
levels of trust and reciprocity related to the manage-
ment of the land are high. However the extensive
set of choice rules suggest that many farmers work
alone in almost all aspects of producon, free to
choose when and who they buy seeds from, what
they grow etc. Awareness of their collecve power
with regard to buying, selling and markeng produce
is lacking and demonstrated in that despite survey-
ing other farmers to ascertain the relave value of
their crops (concerning quality), farmers sll nego-
ate with customers individually as opposed to col-
lecvely, lowering their bargaining power.
This leaves open many avenues for improving pro-
ducvity/income illustrang that while levels of
trust and unity exist from farmer to farmer, a collab-
orave approach to farming pracces and market-
ing/selling is absent.
Figure 4.1- Raonal choice theory for collecve acon by Elinor Ostrom (1)
26
REFERENCES
1) Ostrom, E. A Behavioral Approach to the Raonal
Choice Theory of Collecve Acon: Presidenal Address,
American Polical Science Associaon, 1997 Source: TheAmerican Polical Science Review, Vol. 92, No. 1 (Mar.,
1998), pp. 1-22
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Rule ManifestaonBoundary Rules Individuals must be granted permission from other
users to farm on the RD site
Condions of Use:
No culvang of someone else’s land
If farming another person’s plot recompense is agreed
upon between farmers
No watering of someone else’s land without consent
No harvesng someone else’s crops (stealing)
No tools to be used on a Friday
No building on farm land
Posion Rules Land owners: The State Government
Land custodians: GIDA
Land Appropriators: The Farmers
Co-operave: (Execuve Commiee: Chairman,
Vice-Chairman, Secretary)
Market women
MoFA extension ocers
Guards
Choice Rules The me of year to farmWhen to buy seeds
The types of crops grown
Buying or renng equipment
Which chemicals are used
Who to take loans from: market women (small loan)
or co-operave (larger loan)?
Choice of customer (market woman)
Prices negoated with customers individually, (In ac-
cordance with a survey of produce across all farmers)
Joining the cooperave
Subdividing the plotEmploying labour
Payo Rules If monetary loss has occurred, compensaon is
calculated and paid (by the co-operave)
Co-operave execuves decide outcome of internal
conicts
Thieves, if caught, are taken to the Ashaiman police.
Procedures (in the co-operave) to deal with late loan
repayments
Informaon Rules Informaon concerning levels of produce and incomesis managed individually, there is not evidence of com-
mon informaon management.
RULES FOR THE RD CO-OPERATIVE:
Table 4.2: Rules for the RD co-operave27
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
REFERENCES
1) Anderies, J. M., M. A. Janssen, and E. Ostrom. 2004. A
framework to analyze the robustness of social-ecological
systems from an instuonal perspecve. Ecology and
Society 9(1): 18. [online] URL: hp://www.ecologyandso-
ciety.org/vol9/iss1/art18/
2) Ostrom, E., Understanding Internaonal Diversity,
(Princeton: PUP, 2005). Chapter 8: ‘Using Rules as Tools to
Cope with the Commons’, pp.219-254.
3) The denion of a co-operave, as provided by the
Internaonal Co-operave Alliance (ICA) is an autono-
mous associaon of persons united voluntarily to meet
their common economic, social, and cultural needs andaspiraons through a jointly-owned and democracally-
controlled enterprise.” – hp://www.ica.coop/coop/in-
dex.html
28
CO-OPERATIVE
The co-operave aempts to provide a means of in-
stuonalizing the CPR by oering greater legima-
cy and links to outside organisaons and state bod-
ies. While the rules are common to most farmers,
whether members or not, the co-operave plays a
parcular role in conict resoluon, oen as a judi-
ciary panel. Roles of the co-operave include a basic
savings scheme and loan-giving (though described
as an arduous process), price control (although
prices are sll negoated individually) and access to
emergency funds if a farmer encounters dicules.
This, however, is the extent of the evidence for co-
operaon. Neo-classical economic theory describes
agricultural co-operaves as being organised aroundthe pursuit of an idened goal, oen maximizing
producvity or economic returns.[3]
RD farmers stated their chief reason behind join-
ing the co-operave as ‘unity’. Currently a common
objecve is absent, shown by the fact that around
half of the RD farmers are not members of the co-
operave because they do not perceive it as worth-
while. Key barriers to joining include a lack of trust
in the leadership. Despite the evidence of trust and
reciprocity on an individual basis, this appears toevaporate once the co-operave is entered into the
equaon. The absence of a common goal means
farmers do not work in collaboraon to co-produce
their own outcomes and realise the potenal net
benets.
POTENTIALS
To comprehend what the farmers’ aspiraons are wefacilitated a group-visioning exercise asking them to
brainstorm their ideal situaon. This was undertak-
en in collaboraon with farmers from the GIDA site.
Table 4.3 illustrates the ideals, as idened by the
farmers, and is contrasted to the current situaon,
as idened through our various research acvies.
The table is intended to provide observaons of the
gap between the two situaons and highlight where
the potenals for improvement lie, which have in-
formed our strategies (page 39). A detailed discus-
sion of this table can be found in appendix 2 of thissecon, along with potenals for further research.
(Table 4.3)
OVERALL
A reciprocal relaonship between farmers is only
present with regard to their use and appropriaon
of the land. A sense of stewardship over the land is
present, but beyond this there is lile evidence of
aempts being made to co-produce outcomes (be
they delivery of water, inputs or collecve markeng
strategies), as idened by the farmers in the vision-
ing exercise.
The co-operave appears to oer its members lim-
ited value beyond the aempts to create legimacy.
This in itself is a valuable pursuit, however, there
is a dierence between collecve representaon,
and collaboraon on a regular basis in an eort to
enhance livelihoods, provide mutual benets, andmaximise the returns from the land. Central to the
future success of the co-operave and the inclusion
and integraon of all farmers is the establishment
of a series of objecves common to each member.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Ideals Current Situaon
An integrated cooperave, with strong collabora-
on with civil society
Largely isolated co-op, with es only to/through
MoFA
Well organised, with a representave strong leader-
ship
Leadership structures present, but some desire a
more democrac leadership.
Collecve bargaining as a group to increase bargain-
ing power with market mommies
While an element of collecve price seng exists,
individual circumstances and negoaons with mar-
ket mommies leads to loss of bargaining power
Easier nancial/crisis assistance from the co-op to
decrease dependence on market mommies
Formal, long process for geng loans from the
co-op, pushing people to get loans from quicker,
informal sources like market mommies
A stronger body for advocacy purposes, potenally
leading to greater polical representaon and par-
cipaon in decision making
Negligible levels of advocacy conducted through
co-op. Representaon of co-op at certain plaorms
through aendance of secretary, but only advocacy
route used it through MoFA
Collecve policies on generaon and processing of
waste
Lack of denite policies when dealing with waste,
and thus lack of sancon on those who fail to deal
with the problem
Irrigaon support through integraon of co-op with
the GIDA scheme
Individual pumping, but with shared pipes. No GIDA
support as not listed with GIDA
Cooperave facilitave of a shi toward more com-
mercial, export oriented farming
Co-op inacve and maintains status quo of quasi
subsistence farming if anything
Beer policies of sharing inputs and resources Lack of cooperaon and coordinaon regarding
resource/infra sharing
Documented meengs, lists of produce and beerrecord keeping
Complete lack of inventories/records of any sort(aside from some kept by MoFA extension ocer)
IDEALS VS. ACTUAL SITUATIONS IN ROMAN DOWN
Table 4.3: Ideals vs. actual situaon in Roman Down
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The normave Environmental Jusce (EJ) aspect of
our theorecal framework draws upon what Agey-
man dened as the three components of EJ; namely
the procedural, substanve and distribuve aspects
(Ageyman, 2005). Through the mapping and focus
group exercises undertaken with the Roman Down
farmers, we established fairly concrete evidence to
display the decit that the farmers enjoyed in terms
of the substanve and distribuve aspects of EJ.
A good visual representaon of the substanve and
distribuve decits menoned can be seen in map
4.4 and image 4.5 as it examines the physical rep-
resentaons of the water quality issue as eected
by waste disposal upstream from the Roman Down
site.
MACRO-SITUATIONAL: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
AND FORMAL AND INFORMAL DEVELOPMENT
Map 4.4 Waste from informal selement upstream eecng Roman Down water quality
Informal selement along
reservoir dumping solid
waste
Waste owing downstream
and collecng as in the
photo above
Water quality reaching Roman
Down farm severely reduced
as a result
Figure 4.5: Image showing accummulaon and
blockage at bridge
30
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
The procedural aspect of EJ however is the aspectmost strongly invesgated in our theorecal ap-
proach and as such it informed our research meth-
ods and subsequent ndings. It was upon what
Ageyman refers to as the “meaningful involvement
of all people” (Ageyman, 2005) that the focus on
room for manoeuvre and collecve acon were de-
veloped.
This perspecve was further enriched with reference
to Anna Stanley’s work upon exploring procedural
aspects as the “…polics of meaning that structureenvironmental pracce.” (Stanley, 2009) In the con-
text of our study and parcularly in Ashaiman, these
normave principles brought us to invesgate the
noons of vision in terms of the planning process
for the municipality.
It was with these noons that our interacons with
key stakeholders such as the Ashaiman MuncipalAuthority (AshMa), the Tradional Council or ‘Stool’
as well as the Ministry of Food & Agriculture (MOFA)
and the Ghana Irrigaon Development Agency
(GIDA) (1,2, 3,4) sought to uncover what visions of
Ashaiman’s future development amounted to, and
furthermore, what place SUPA would have in these
visions.
Figure 4.6 represents our ndings in terms of which
visions of Ashaiman are represented in the planning
process and how these visions translate in relaonto Urban Agriculture. As can be seen from the in-
formaon provided through interviews with Ashma
and Tradional Council (2,4), they both share a vi-
sion of a vibrant commercial centre which conjures
up images of Urban North America as opposed to
that of Peri-Urban West Africa.
AshMa
• Vision: Millenium City
• Implicaon: UA gives
way for human habita-
on
Stool
• Vision: 24 hour City;
indigenous Ga farmers
(30-50%)
• Implicaon: Encroach-
ment and evicon of
non-Ga farmers
MOFA
• Vision: Food security
• Implicaon: UA pro-
tecon and pro-demo-
lion stance
IDA
• Vision: Carrying for-
ward the legacy of the
naonal pilot irriga-
on scheme
• Implicaon: UA pro-
tecon and scale-upVision of Ashaiman
Figure 4.6- Vision of Ashaiman and its implicaons on Urban Agriculture
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY
The discussion of visions of the city plays into some
of the extensive literature on the ‘rights to the city’.
David Harvey in parcular advocates the formaonof a mass social movement to ensure the access
of the urban poor to the right to “to instute new
modes of urbanizaon” (Harvey, 2008). Even with
social movements considered, in the context of As-
haiman, the discussion of what modes of urbaniza-
on are dominang the planning process cannot
however simply be examined as an issue of engag-
ing just with the formal planning process. This is evi-
denced by conservave esmates that at least 70%
of all development in Ashaiman is of an informal na-
ture (2) (See gure 4.7).
The focus on the formal/informal split nds prac-
cal engagement in the subsequent secon un-
folding the ‘room for manoeuvre’ framework. The
stakeholders introduced in that secon in the way
of NGOs, Market actors and the exploraon of their
part in advocacy strategies in relaon to Urban Ag-
riculture in the Ashaiman municipality is evidence
of an aempt to engage with the informal develop-
ment in the region. It is worth stang that any future
research into the viability of Urban Agriculture in
Ashaiman must beer invesgate the nature of this
informal development as well as understanding the
power relaons which inform such processes.
It is with such ideas in mind that the macro-situa-
onal consideraon of ocial sphere stakeholders
must be unpacked in terms of the formal/informal
divide and parcularly along the borderline which is
assumed to be a lot more uid then the visual repre-
sentaon in gure 4.8 suggests.
As gure 4.8 represents, the Stool plays an impor-
tant role in straddling the formal divide in the plan-
ning process as our research provided evidence thatsome of the development in the Jericho region of
Ashaiman and therefore possibly other areas of de-
velopment were encroachment in the eyes of o-
cial actors even though land had been obtained in
transacon from representaves of the stool. In Fig-
ure 4.8, MOFA and GIDA are closer to the line of in-
formality and this is in the sense that Roman Down
is sll technically an informal use of the land, as seen
in the failure of GIDA to register the Roman Down
farmers on their ocial records along with the GIDA
farmers (1,3,6,7).
32
Figure 4.7- Demolion of informal selements along Ashaiman drain
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
REFERENCES
1) Meeng with Ministry of Food and Agriculture
(MOFA) Director, Sam Nukpor , 4th May
2) Meeng with Chairman of ASHMA Policy Coordi
naon Unit, ASHMA, 6th May
3) Presentaon by GIDA Irrigaon Policy Director,Hotel Paloma followed by discussion, 7th May
4) Meeng with the ASHAIMAN Stool, Tradional
Council Palace, 8th May
5) Meeng with ASHMA Assembly man, Anobu
adongo Thomas, 11th May
6) Meeng with James Akatse Ghana Irrigaon
Development Authority, GIDA, Irrigaon Develop
ment Centre, 11th of May
7) Informal discussions with team facilitator, Nii
Ofoe Hansen, IDA, 3rd-13th May
f o
r m a l
i n f o r m a l
Stool
AshMA
MOFA
GIDA
Figure 4.8- Ocial sphere stakeholders and the formal/informal dimensions of planning
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE
The process of esmang room for manoeuvre be-
gan with rst working with the farmers to idenfy
their exisng acon space, and then invesgang
deeper the stakeholder relaonships at various lev-
els. A focus group idened key stakeholders with
whom the farmers currently interact, arculang
levels of inuence, proximity and the qualitave im-
pact of these interacons. (gure 4.9)
This, coupled with the cooperave execuve com-
miee interviews, resulted in four key stakeholders
being idened as highly inuenal, with parcular
regards to the land conict and the mainstreaming
of urban and peri-urban agriculture. Most proxi-
mate to the farmers are GIDA and MoFA; while di-
rect interacon with the Stool and AshMA is limited,these are seen as highly inuenal on the land se-
curity issue and a signicant barrier to long-term
agricultural pracces. Further invesgaon also
revealed the presence of a civil society actor, the
Ashaiman District Cizen’s Monitoring Commiee
(DCMC), who has had direct contact with the farm-
ers of Roman Down and may play a key role in open-
ing inter-organisaonal dialogue.
Figure 4.9- Stakeholders mapping
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Actor Acons supporng RFM Acons constraining RFM
MoFA • Technical support.
• Support against encroachment.
• Mediatory role for farmers in physi-
cal and instuonal relaonships.
• Inconsistent approach towards
technical support and resoluon of
the land issue.
• Transparency called into queson.
GIDA • Knowledge exchange between GIDA
scheme farmers and RD, and IDC
support.
• Opposion to building develop-
ments
• Interdependency of GIDA scheme
and RD sites.
• RD site labelled a ‘buer zone’ ac-
cording to ocial GIDA policy.
• RD farmers not formally registered
under the GIDA scheme.
Stool • Tradional Council have expressed a
willingness to clarify the situaon.
• Recognion of a need to maintainthe municipality’s farming history.
• Selling of land and construcon on
farming sites.
• Confrontaon and threats of violence from Stool in defence of
building sites.
• The Stool quesons the legimacy
of farmers’ appropriaon of the
site.
AshMA • Demolion of some encroachments
in Spring 2010, especially around
waterways.
• Inadequate aempts to prevent
encroachment on farmland.
• Apparent indierence concern-
ing the need for housing vs. food
security.• Do not consider RD as farming
land.
• RD status as a ‘buer zone’ means
plans for development are deemed
permissible.
• Policy and planning has lacked the
input of mulple stakeholders (es-
pecially those directly implicated).
Civil Society (DCMC) • Agricultural budget tracking project
(directed by ‘Send-Ghana’).• Acve advocacy on behalf of farms
over encroachment issues aecng
Ashaiman.
• Proposal to demarcate farmland
from the city.
• Successes of the Ashaiman Federa-
on of the Urban Poor (FUP) work-
ing in collaboraon with the Stool
and AshMA for slum upgrading.
• Opportunies for network-building
across civil society groups.
• Limited resources available for
advocacy.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
FOOT NOTE
1) interview with stool 8 May
SUMMARY OF POTENTIALS for Room for
Manoeuvre (gure 4.10)see appendix for a fuller analysis:
MoFA is in a unique posion to foster dialogue across
mulple sectors of governance. Given current ins-
tuonal constraints, this open dialogue is necessaryto the connued existence of UPA in Ashaiman.
GIDA and the RD farmers need to work together to
realise the potenal of the land. The oodplain not
only plays a crucial (and under-appreciated) role in
the municipality’s drainage, but also has the poten-
al to go beyond a passive acvity of ‘buer’ land,
harnessing the character of the area to enhance
producvity and protect the urban environment.
Second, by linking the farmers of both cooperaves,GIDA has the potenal to expand the social acon
space for all users. While this is already happening
on an unocial level, the role GIDA plays in recog-
nising this link will be crical in mobilising social
pressure to mainstream SUPA.
Interacons between the Tradional Council (Stool)
and the farmers are currently antagonisc; however
the Stool could be a key ally in supporng the long-
term vision of SUPA. While the Stool’s long-term
vision for Ashaiman is for a commercial “24-hour”
city, the Regent recognises the need to maintain
the municipality’s farming history and engage the
indigenous Ga community in farming. Of parcular
interest for him is the need for gainful employment
that might be met with Urban Agriculture, instead of
seeking “white-collar jobs that don’t exist.” 1
In order to balance this vision for urban develop-
ment with custodianship for Ashaiman’s land and
people, strategic and open negoaon must be pos-sible with all stakeholders. These negoaons must
not be driven by threat of violence or forced evic-
on, or else the long-term social and instuonal
mainstreaming of SUPA will be untenable. However,
it must be recognised that farmers at Roman Down
will also need to accept the need for strategic com-
promise, as any soluon with the Stool will not end
with exisng lines being redrawn.
As a new municipality, AshMA has the opportuni-
ty to make advances in its vision for a sustainable
city. To date, however the process has been guided
from within the planning instuon without the sus-
tained input of other stakeholders in the city.
Only in the past 12 months have civil society actors
made contact with Roman Down. The Ashaiman
DCMC, a new entrant to UPA issues is composed of a
network of NGOs and CBOs led by Braimah Abdulai
of the Rural-Urban Women and Children Develop-
ment Agency and includes parcipants from health,
educaon, and women’s groups as well as repre-
sentaves from the municipal assembly, tradional
council. Secretary Bae of the RD cooperave is also a
representave on the commiee, potenally provid-ing a direct access point for advocacy and dialogue
between UPA praconers and instuonal actors
One of the biggest barriers, according to Abdulai, is
the limitaon on resources for advocacy. However,
the group has yet to fully employ the social resourc-
es at its disposal. The potenal for this kind of re-
source-building was present during our eldwork on
11 May, when farmers of Roman Down and the GIDA
scheme collecvely met to build their own vision
for SUPA. Also in aendance was a member of the
DCMC as well as Charles Zukka, the Ashaiman leader
of the Ghana Federaon for the Urban Poor (FUP).
As all present talked about the importance of Unity,
Zukka presented the case of the (FUP), where the
group was not only successful in its saving schemes,
but was able to partner with the Stool and AshMA to
iniate a community-led slum upgrading scheme. If
it can build on this kind of social resource, the DCMC
can play a key role in bridging the gap between aspi-
raons for SUPA and the praccal realies of policy-makers.
36
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
KEY OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS TO ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE OF SUPA
Figure 4.10- Key opportunies and barriers to Room for Manoeuvre of SUPA
37
+Physical dependency of
GIDA and municipality on
Roman Down as drainage
ouall
Exisng
Acon
Space
TECHNICAL & BEHAVIOURAL
- Lack of material support
to develop new producve
norms
-Top-down process of
disseminang knowledge
and technical procedures
- Farmers not united for
potenal negoaons
+Physical interdependency
of GIDA and RD
STRATEGIC
-Advocacy routes too
narrowly focused on MoFA
and encroachment, ratherthan planning instuons
I N S T I T U T I O N A L & I
N T E R - O R G A N I S A T I O N A L
- G I D A a n d M o F A h a v e n o t
“ o c i a l l y ” s u p p o r t e d R D i n
t h e f a c e o f t h e S t o o l
- A b s e n c e o f t r a n s p a r e n c y
i n
r o u t e s t o a c c e s s i n s t u o
n a l
d i a l o g u e
+ C
i v i l S o c i e t y n e t w o r k
a l r e a d y i n p l a c e
+ P
r o c e s s o f l i n k i n g f a r m e r s
h a
s a l r e a d y b e g u n
S O
C I A L R E L A T I O N S & M OB I L I S A T I O N
- S t o
o l q u e s o n s l e g i m a c y
o f R D f a r m e r s
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05 CHAPTER
NEXT STEPS
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
STRATEGIES AND ACTION PLAN
Following the ndings based on our theorecal
framework, our strategies were designed as a pro-
gressive process. Beginning with strengthening the
collecve unit, the strategy follows to idenfy and
expand collecve acon space through social net-
works, and nally engage with instuonal stake-
holders.
The nal eld visit was conducted at the GIDA co-
operave meeng point featuring over 40 represen-
taves from both the RD and GIDA farmers’ coop-
eraves. During a back-casng exercise, all farmers
agreed upon a vision of a posive future which in-
cluded polical representaon. The desire of the
farmers coupled with our diagnosis that the farmers
must advocate more eecvely have strongly inu-enced the formulaon of these strategies.
A collecve exercise to idenfy barriers and oppor-
tunies to their own denion of SUPA as well as
STRATEGY : FORMALISING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COOPERATIVE me limit: within 1 month
potenal strategies to overcome them revealed the
importance of collecve unity and polical repre-
sentaon to both groups. This process played a key
role in linking our nal strategies to both our frame-
workand the needs and aspiraons of UPA praco-
ners on the ground.
The inial strategy is linked back to the ‘social’ hy-
pothesis. The raonale is that if one accepts the
farmers as engaged in a reciprocal relaonship with
the land, then it is in the interests of both the co-
operave and the condion of the land that the
farmers’ capacity for stewardship be built upon. The
strategy is therefore intended to develop the already
established direcon and aim of the cooperave by
bringing its members greater unity, harmony andwith it, order to maximise benets for themselves
as well as the surrounding natural and social envi-
ronment.
40
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
Arrive at consensus among all
farmers for improved coopera-
on and coordinaon in dealing
with common problems. Such
acvies can extend the basic
trust and reciprocity that already
exists in the site to fully involveall farmers with the co-opera-
ve, in parcular the recent
non-members.
RD Farmers Cooperave Execu-
ve Commiee, involving co-op
and non co-op farmers. This
could be overseen/facilitated
by relevant personnel from the
GIDA.
(1) Hold a meeng involving all
members of the coop as well as non-
coop members; discuss purposes/
bylaws of the cooperave, but allow
only members of the co-op to con-
tribute to the process while allowing
non-members to join up on the spot.(2) Above to be followed up by
robust procedures, including strong
record keeping, informaon gather-
ing regarding inputs, outputs, aen-
dance, membership etc.
(3) The elecon process/protocol
should be reviewed in light of the
outcomes of the above meengs.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
The second strategy, “Linking Cooperaves”, is to
link all farmers in Ashaiman under an umbrella as-
sociaon. Through the focus group exercises, it has
been established that the farmers are willing to unify
because of shared problems . This union not only
reinforces the stance and representaon of RD, but
of all the farmers in the Ashaiman region. Through
increased numbers and organisaon,
STRATEGY : PROBLEM IDENTIFICAITON/ PRIORITISATION WITH A VIEW TO
COMMON SOLUTIONS
me limit: within 1 month
all farmers in Ashaiman can in theory enjoy greater
access to polical representaon. In this regard the
umbrella associaon can priorize common prob-
lems and issues of the farmers in the region, while
advocang for posive change in which all Ashaiman
farmers can reap benets.
41
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
Arrive at consensus among allfarmers for improved coopera-
on and coordinaon in dealing
with common problems. The
idencaon of commonalies
and sympathies can strengthen
basic trust and reciprocity
between farmers. A united co-
operave can enhance leverage
with other actors and develop
bridging capital.
RD Farmers Cooperave Execu-ve Commiee, with input/facil-
itaon from the relevant person-
nel from the GIDA, and inclusion
of the MoFA extension ocer.
Hold an open meeng among allfarmers to raise and share issues
among the RD farmers to have a
common understanding and agree
upon which issues need to be tack-
led rst. This will be decided through
majority
STRATEGY : CREATE A COMMON VISION BETWEEN THE ASHAIMAN IRRIGATIONAND ROMAN DOWN COOPERATIVES THROUGH A MEETING OF THE TWO GROUPS
TO PRIORITIZE PROBLEMS AND COMMON ISSUES.
me limit: within 2 month
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
Sharing the vision and nding
common vision will be the basis
for (1) forming an umbrella asso-
ciaon and trust and reciprocityand (2) forming and understand-
ing the ‘one voice’ necessary
for advocacy in reaching out to
various stakeholders.
RD and AI Farmers Cooperave
Execuve Commiee, relevant
personnel from the GIDA, AFUP
(1) Personnel from the GIDA and
AFUP facilitate meengs between RD
and AI Farmers to be aended by all
farmers
(2) RD and AI Farmers share their
visions with ALL farmers, nd and
priorize the common visions and
come to an agreement within the
cooperave and with each other.
(3) AFUP assists recording the min-
utes and producing the common
vision.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
The third strategy, “Expanding The Network”, uses
the umbrella associaon to link with other civil soci-
ety actors. Civil society support is needed to connect
with communies at large. As revealed through our
research, Ashaiman has a budding civil network,
willing to parcipate with and represent the in-
terests of the farmers. For instance: the FUP helps
to create and mobilize savings groups, which arepowerful and vital to advocacy and building collec-
ve strength; while the DCMC provides a plaorm
to connect with policy makers. Further to this, our
work in the macro-situaonal context revealed that
in light of the majority of development in Ashaiman
being of an informal nature, it is important that any
advocacy aempts must also engage with the con-
stuents of these such developments. This strategy
speaks directly to this nding.
42
The negoaon and collaboraon with key instu-
onal actors is to advocate and ensure that policies
bring legimacy to UA in Ashaiman. This has short,
interim, and long-term implicaons. Channels of
communicaon and cooperaon need to be well es-
tablished in order for the long-term goal to be real-
ized.
STRATEGY : ESTABLISH AN UMBRELLA ASSOCIATION OF ALL FARMERS IN
ASHAIMAN
me limit: 4 months (aer agreeing on common vision)
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
Establishment of an umbrellaassociaon of all farmers in
Ashaiman will give the farm-
ers the necessary strengths in
numbers to voice their concerns
by having the power to mobilize
people whenever needed for in-
teracons with stakeholders and
instuon in advocacy pracces.
RD and AI Execuve Commit-tee, relevant personnel from the
GIDA, AFUP
(1)Personnel from the GIDA andAFUP facilitate meengs between RD
and AI execuve commiee and any
other farmers in Ashaiman interest-
ed in joining the associaon.
(2)AFUP assists recording the min-
utes and producing agreement for
formaon of an umbrella associaon
(3)With support of the GIDA, mem-
berships are given and recordedto those farmers willing to join the
associaon.
(4)RD and AI execuve commiee
share the informaon with ALL farm-
ers and agree within cooperave and
with each other.
(5)RD and AI execuve commiee
report the progress and results to
GIDA, Stool, DCMC, AshMA, MoFA
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture 43
STRATEGY : PARTNER ASSOCIATION WITH THE FEDERATION OF THE URBAN POOR
(FUP) TO EXPLORE THE POTENTIAL FOR SCALED UP ORGANISATION AND
MOBILISATION.
me limit: Within 4 months
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
In parallel with Ashaiman farm-
ers coming together under an
umbrella associaon, partnering
with experienced organizaon
such as AFUP will further en-
hance and empower collecve
capacies of the associaon for
advocacy and inuencing policy
making and decision process by
combining numbers of farmers
and knowledge and experienceof AFUP.
RD and AI Farmers Cooperave
Execuve Commiee, Umbrella
associaon, AFUP
(1)AFUP facilitates a open parcipa-
on meeng between AFUP, exisng
AFUP members and any AI and RD
farmers to explain the potenal of
joining the AFUP.
(2)Informaon about AFUP is shared
among all farmers in the associaon.
(3)Umbrella associaon and AFUP
meet to decide on potenal areas of future cooperaon
(4)Umbrella associaon conrms
consensus among members to part-
ner with AFUP and disseminates the
decision to all famers.
(5)Umbrella associaon and AFUP to
sign an agreement (MOU) to become
partners, specifying specic areas of
cooperaon.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Realisaon of the nal strategy, “Engaging with In-
stuonal Actors”, is seen as the nal step toward
integrang SUPA into the city’s physical, social and
polical agenda. Once the farmers gain increased
representaon, they can work in tandem with the
polical/tradional systems to provide an alternate
land plan for Ashaiman that includes space for UA,
while not impeding on development objecves.
44
Through implementaon of the strategies, it is nec-
essary to have all the ingredients present to support
SUPA; dually providing a space for farmer’s coopera-
ves in polical representaon whilst allowing for
collaborave eorts regarding land planning in
Ashaiman.
STRATEGY : THROUGH THE DCMC, CREATE A FORUM FOR THE ASSOCIA-
TION OF ASHAIMAN FARMERS TO ENGAGE WITH POLICY MAKERS.
Time limit: 6 months
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
Building on the capacies thatthe farmers posses within and
the support they have from
AFUP, providing a plaorm for
farmers to voice their interests
and engage in dialogue and
cooperaon with the relevant
stakeholders will give farmers
the real opportunies to actually
have their voices heard and pos-
sibly to inuence policies and its
formulaon processes.
DCMC, Umbrella associaon,AFUP
(1)AFUP facilitates meengs be-tween DCMC and Umbrella associa-
on to (i) share exisng issues and
visions and (ii) discuss about creaon
of a forum including agendas, its
role, members, policies, etc.
(2)Umbrella associaon shares the
informaon with all farmers and
reach consensus among the mem-
bers about establishment of a forum.
(3)DCMC and Umbrella associaon
signs an agreement (MOU) concern-
ing the formaon of a forum, speci-
fying specic roles, members and
policies.
(4)DCMC, Umbrella associaon,
AFUP facilitates a meeng with key
stakeholders (GIDA, MoFA, AshMA,
Stool, etc ) to explain about the cre-
aon of a forum.
(5)With assistance from AFUP, an-
nouncement regarding the forum to
be made to the public.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture 45
STRATEGY : COLLABORATION WITH STOOL
Time limit: 2 months
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
As Stool is the most importantinformal instuon for farmers’
land tenure, improved relaon-
ship for future collaboraon on
land tenure issues is of utmost
importance.
RD and AI Execuve Commiee ,Relevant personnel of the GIDA,
DCMC, MoFA
(1)MoFA facilitate meeng withStool, RD and AI Execuve Commit-
tee and DCMC to discuss about land
tenure issues.
(2)Stool and RD Execuve Commiee
agree on future cooperaon and pro-
duce agreed minutes which will be
shared among all RD and AI farmers
STRATEGY : ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICIAL LEGAL BOUNDARIES FOR GIDA
FARMING AND BUFFER ZONES, PROTECTED BY OFFICIAL RE-ZONING
Time Limit: 1 year
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
Since land tenure is such a basic
necessity yet one of the most
dicult issues to solve, ensuring
land security for the farmers,
through advocacy of importance
of UA in Accra and recognion
of themselves as the legimate
farmers on agricultural land, will
give them hope for the future
and basis for their right to the
city.
GIDA, Umbrella associaon,
DCMC
(1)GIDA conducts an extensive map-
ping of RD and GIDA site and collects
all relevant farmer records.
(2)GIDA shares legal documentaon
for acquision and compensaon
of stool land with Stool, TDC, MoFA,
AshMA.
(3)DCMC facilitates open consulta-
ons in the forum for UA and land
security.
(4)GIDA meets the Stool to discuss
and explain technical issues of build-
ing on waterways and buer zones.
Any discussions on demarcang
boundaries of agricultural and stool
land are to be mediated by MOFA so
that UA sites are protected.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
The progress of the strategies will be monitored by
the indicators relevant to the previously menoned
strategies, based on the framework analysis usingRoom for Maneuver, to link Collecve Acon and
the
Strategy Monitoring
Indicators By Who When Disclosure
Formalising the
constuon of the
cooperave
• Agreed minutes of
the meengs
• Agreed document
on constuon• Conrmaon on
open parcipaon by
all available farmers
on the nal decision
• RD Farmers Co-
operave Execuve
Commiee
• Relevant person-
nel of the GIDA
• Aer agreement
or every meeng
• Agreed min-
utes/ documents
shared among all
farmers
Problem idenca-
on / priorisaon
with a view to com-
mon soluons
• Agreed minutes of
the meengs
• Agreed document
on priorized list of
problems and issues
• Conrmaon on
open parcipaon byall available farmers
on the nal decision
• RD Farmers Co-
operave Execuve
Commiee
• Relevant person-
nel of the GIDA
• Aer agreement
or every meeng
• Agreed minutes
/ documents
shared among all
farmers
MONITORING AND EVALUATION: STRENGHTENING THE COOPERATIVE
46
visions of the city outlined in the micro and macro
ndings respecvely. The details of Monitoring and
Evaluaon, including indicators; those responsiblefor monitoring; ming and disclosure plans, are
shown in the tables below.
STRATEGY : FORMATION AND SUBMISSION OF AN ALTERNATE DEVELOPMENT
PLAN FOR LAND IN RD
Time limit: Within 2 years
WHY (Movaons) WHO HOW
Aer building their capacies as
an eecve and inuenal as-sociaon, forfying their posion
within network of stakeholders
in Accra and establishing their
rights to the city, for the farmers
to develop and submit alternate
development plans for Ashaiman
RD area will further advocate the
importance of UA and recognion
of themselves as the legimate
farmers on agricultural land.
AFUP, RD and AI Farmers Coopera-
ve Execuve Commiee , DCMC
(1)AFUP to acquire the exisng land
development plans.
(2)AFUP to survey and map the exist-
ing RD land.
(3)AFUP and RD and AI Execuve
Commiee to review and analyze the
exisng plans. Through DCMC and the
forum, discuss with stakeholders about
alternave land plans.
(4) AFUP and RD Execuve Commiee
draw up alternate development plan,
publicly announce the nalizaon of
the plan and submit to DCMC, AshMA,
T&C Planning, Stool, GIDA, MoFA.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Strategy Monitoring
Indicators By Who When Disclosure
Create a common
vision between the
Ashaiman Irrigaon
and Roman Down
cooperaves through
a meeng of the two
groups to priorize
problems and com-
mon issues.
• Agreed minutes of
the meengs be-
tween two coopera-
ves about common
visions
-and/or-
• Agreed documents
lisng the common
visions
• Conrmaon on
open parcipaon by
all available farmersand transparency on
the nal decision
• RD cooperave
execuve commit-
tee
• AFUP
• Aer agreement
or every meeng
• Agreed min-
utes/ documents
shared among all
farmers, GIDA,
MOFA
Establish an umbrella
associaon of all
farmers in Ashaiman
• Agreed minutes of
the meengs be-
tween two coopera-
ves about establish-
ment of an umbrella
associaon
• A formal documentstang the establish-
ment of an umbrella
associaon
• Developing an of-
cial membership list
• Conrmaon on
open parcipaon by
all available farmers
and transparency on
the nal decision
• RD cooperave
execuve commit-
tee
• AFUP
• Aer establish-
ment or every
meeng
• Agreed minutes
shared among all
farmers, GIDA,
DCMC, FUP,
MOFA, ASHMA
MONITORING AND EVALUATION: LINKING COOPERATIVES
47
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
MONITORING AND EVALUATION: EXPANDING THE NETWORK
Strategy Monitoring
Indicators By Who When Disclosure
Partner associaon
with the Federaonof the Urban Poor to
explore the potenal
for scaled up organ-
isaon and mobilisa-
on
•Agreed minutes of
the meengs andsigned MOU between
Federaon and RD
cooperave
• Random interviews
among the associa-
on members on the
performance of AFUP
• RD and AI coop-
erave execuvecommiee and
AFUP
• RD and AI coop-
erave execuve
commiee
• Aer each
meeng
• Every 6 months
• Agreed minutes
shared among allfarmers
Through the DCMC,
create a forum for
the associaon of Ashaiman Farmers to
engage with policy
makers
• Agreed minutes
of the meengs
between DCMC andassociaon
• Agreed minutes of
the joint stakeholder
meengs
• Random interviews
among the associa-
on members on the
changes brought
about aer the cre-
aon of the forum.
• DCMC, asso-
ciaon representa-
ves
• RD and AI coop-
erave execuve
commiee and/or
AFUP
• Aer each
meeng
• Every 6 months
• Agreed min-
utes/ documents
shared among allfarmers, GIDA,
DCMC, STOOL,
MOFA
48
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
MONITORING AND EVALUATION: STRENGTHENING LINKAGES TO FORMAL AND
INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS
Strategy Monitoring
Indicators By Who When Disclosure
Collaboraon with
Stool
• Agreed minutes
of the meengsbetween Stool and
cooperaves
• Random interviews
among the associa-
on members on the
changes brought
about aer re-
connecng with the
Stool.
• RD cooperave
execuve commit-tee
• Personnel from
the GIDA and AFUP
• Aer each
meeng
• Every 3 months
• Shared among
all farmers, GIDA,DCMC, ASHMA,
MOFA
Establishment of ocial legal boundar-
ies for GIDA farming
and buer zones,
protected by ocial
re-zoning
• Sharing of legaldocumentaon for
land among GIDA,
Stool, TDC, MOFA,
ASHMA, RD
• Agreed minutes of
the meengs be-
tween GIDA, MOFA
and Stool on demar-
cang boundaries and
any other technical
issues• Random interviews
among the associa-
on members on the
dierence before and
aer the establish-
ment of legal bound-
aries.
• GIDA
• GIDA, MOFA
• GIDA and RD andAI cooperave ex-
ecuve commiee
• Aer eachmeeng
• Every 3 months
for a year
• Shared amongall farmers, GIDA,
DCMC, TDC,
ASHMA, MOFA
Formaon and sub-
mission of an alter-
nate developmentplan for land in RD
• Surveying and map-
ping of the land
• Consultaon meet-ings at the forum
• Submission of an
alternate develop-
ment plan
• Follow up on (1) the
progress of inclusion
of the alternate plan
in ocial plans and
policies and (2) inu-
ence the alternate
plan had on instu-onal processes.
• RD Farmers Co-
operave Execuve
Commiee
• RD and AI coop-
erave execuve
commiee, AFUP
and DCMC
• 6 months
• Aer eachmeeng
• 1 year
• Every 3 months
• Shared among
all farmers, GIDA,
DCMC, ASHMA,MOFA
49
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06 CHAPTER
CONCLUSIONS
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
CONCLUSIONS
Roman Down is the locus of a mounng conict near-
ly universal to cies around the world facing rapid
urbanisaon. While many actors have characterised
this conict as an issue of protecng farmland from
urban “encroachment,” the crux of the SUPA ques-
on is how urban agriculture can be woven into the
urban fabric. It is important to recognise that ad-
vocacy for SUPA cannot reject the expansion of the
built environment or the inherent need to build suit-
able selements—rather, it is about fostering mean-
ingful dialogue to represent the needs and aspira-
ons of all urban dwellers.
So long as allies and advocates set UPA against other
processes of urbanisaon, priority in pracce will
relegate agriculture to the fringe. This is evident inthe supporve discourse for UPA among key instu-
onal stakeholders that is unreected in policy and
acon.
While there is as of yet a gap in social mobilisaon
around UPA, we found that some of the assumpons
in our hypothesis regarding social consensus sur-
rounding agriculture were confounded by a largely
posive noon of UPA by farmers and community
members alike. At the same me, instuonal nd-
ings corroborated our hypothesis regarding the ab-sence of polical support for SUPA. Moreover, the
single sector approach manifested not only in top-
down policy implementaon, but was equally con-
stricve to boom-up aempts at advocacy.
The strategies which came out of these ndings are
intended to facilitate a process by which SUPA can
be mainstreamed into the social and polical dis-
course. These strategies are not a “road map” to
sustainability, but are the rst step in inculcang
new norms and procedures that can lead to a larger
context of urban sustainability.
• Beer collecve organisaon can bolster liveli-
hoods and beer protect UPA’s economic as well as
polical prospects within the city
• By “speaking as one” UPA praconers can assert
themselves as a legimate constuency of the mu-
nicipality
• A well organised collecve can increase the e-
cacy of new norms for physical sustainability• Linking groups through civil society can direct the
role of social instuons to foster beer dialogue
across sectors of the urban populaon
• By using civil society as a facilitator, the UPA con-
stuency can have a clearer voice in dialogue with
instuonal stakeholders crical to mainstreaming
SUPA
This research was far from comprehensive, but of-
fers a good grounding for aempts to uncover and
beer understand a complex situaon. The interre-
laon of the instuonal and physical processes af-
fecng Roman Down began to come to light through
our research. By harnessing these social and po-
lical processes, further research can beer explore
the physical relaons of the urban farm to the en-
re city’s environment. If these social and physical
processes can be linked, Roman Down could be anexemplar for integrang SUPA into the greater ur-
ban fabric.
• Linking groups through civil society can direct
the role of social instuons to foster beer
dialogue across sectors of the urban populaon
• By using civil society as a facilitator, the UPA con-
stuency can have a clearer voice in dialogue
with instuonal stakeholders crical to main-
streaming SUPA
This research was far from comprehensive, but of-
fers a good grounding for aempts to uncover and
beer understand a complex situaon. The interre-
laon of the instuonal and physical processes af-
fecng Roman Down began to come to light through
our research. By harnessing these social and po-
lical processes, further research can beer explore
the physical relaons of the urban farm to the en-
re city’s environment. If these social and physical
processes can be linked, Roman Down could be an
exemplar for integrang SUPA into the greater ur-
ban fabric.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture 55
Physical system of farming in
Ashaiman is naturally unsustainable
At ground level, the sense of
stewardship is missing due to the lack of
consensus on the role of
agriculture and its importance.
A fragmented sectoral approach and lack
of recognion for other actors in service
provision and policy formaon has led to
an instuonal framework with limitedspace for cooperaon and collecve input.
Sustainable Urban Agriculture is denied
by a social support system and an
instuonal framework that fully
integrate socially produced agriculture
- Community members and farmers alike do arculate
posive views about the role of UPA
- However, advocacy tends to focus on protecng UPA
from the city rather than integrang
- Producve norms toward physical sustainability are sll
stymied by lack of resources and instuonal support
- Sectoral approach apparent in both policy formulaon
and ground-level acvism
- Disorganisaon and lack of accountability within
instuons such as the tradional council compound
eorts to mainstream SUPA
- Sectoral approach creates direct tension between
urban development and agriculture with limited
capacity to integrate the two
H y p o t h e s e s
Therefore,
Figure 6.1: Hypothesis validaon
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
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APPENDICES
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
FIELD WORK PLAN
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture 57
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
APPENDIX 1
Urban Agriculture has grown in importance in Gha-
na over the last few years. Thanks to the hard work
of NGO actors such as IWMI, the importance and
contribuon of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculturein Ghana has been highlighted and changed its sta-
tus in the polical arena. This shi was conrmed in
2005 when the naonal Ministry of Food and Agri-
culture (MOFA) declared:
“We call for the promoon of a shared vision on
Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (UPA) that takes
into account the specic needs and condions in
the country and urge Policy makers, in partnership
with Development Partners, to develop gender sen-
sive policies and appropriate instruments that will
create an enabling environment for integrang and
supporng UPA into our economies”
APPENDIX 2
The Ghana Year 2000 Populaon Census Report es-
mated the populaon of Ashaiman to be 150,312
with a growth rate of 4.6 per cent, which is higher
than the 2.6 per cent naonal growth rate (1). The
Peri-Urban interface has been acknowledged by Si-mon, McGregor & Thompson as having no single
denion that will t all circumstances but they cite
Phillips et al denion of the Peri Urban interface as
being characterised by “... strong urban inuences,
easy access to markets, services and other inputs,
ready supplies of labour, but relave shortages of
land and risks from polluon and urban growth” (3).
APPENDIX 3
The port of Tema, built in the 1960s to alleviate the
large volumes of trade coming through the port of
Accra had a profound impact upon the develop-
ment of Ashaiman. The rapid growth experienced
in Ashaiman was an unexpected consequence of the
development of Tema as a major commercial port.
Though some provision for low cost housing was
developed in the 1960s by the Tema Development
Commission (TDC) this was unsasfactory and as
such Ashaiman experiences incredibly high volumes
of informal housing development (5).Similarly, the GIDA farming site was developed in the
1970s as an ocial government irrigaon scheme.
The area known as Roman Down was intended to be
le vacant as a ‘potenal’ irrigaon area whilst also
performing its important physiological funcon as a
ood plain. The intensicaon of farming upon the
Roman Down site was an unexpected consequence
of the development of the GIDA site as a major gov-
ernment irrigaon scheme.
APPENDIX 4
As the encroachments map on page 16 shows, the
issue of encroachment upon the RD farming site has
been growing in signicance over the last decade
and has heightened the current climate of conict
over the land use. Whilst the RD farmers coopera-
ve claims the land as government farming land and
therefore any residenal development as encroach-
ment, the Tradional Council maintains that as long
as the RD farmers are not ocially recognised gov-
ernment farmers, they are the encroachers upon
the land.
The conict goes back to disagreement over the orig-
inal terms of agreement between the TDC and the
tradional council. This issue is further addressed in
the ‘Background’ secon of this report.
1) hp://www.statsghana.gov.gh/
2) David Simon, Duncan McGregor & David Thompson;
‘Contemporary Perspecves on the Peri-Urban Zones of
Cies in Developing Areas’ in The Peri-Urban Interface,
2006, Earthscan, London
3) Phillips et al; Literature Review on Peri-Urban Natural
Resource Conceptualisaon and Management Approach-
es; Final Technical Report; 1999; University of Nong-
ham and University of Liverpool
4) The above is based upon informaon from:
Boakye, S., 2008, “Sustaining urban farming: Explaining
why farmers make investment in the absence of secure
tenure with new evidence from Ghana”, DSA Conference
2008 Paper.
5) Grant, R. & Yankson, P., 2003, “City prole: Accra”, Cit-
ies, Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 65–74, 2003
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REFERENCES
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
METHODOLOGY
The principles of parcipatory methods are drawn
from the work of Paulo Freire (1) and based on the
basic premised that “the poor and marginalised are
capable of analysing their own realies and that
they should be enabled to do so”. (2)
The basic principles of such methods as dened by
S.Kumar in ‘Methods for Community Parcipaon’
are that:
• The poor and the marginalised are capable of
analysing their own realies
• They can and should be empowered to analyse
• The outsiders should act as convenors, catalysts,
and facilitators
• Self-crical awareness of the facilitator is an
essenal prerequisite. The facilitators should
reect crically on their concepts, values, a-
tudes, behaviour, etc. on a regular basis.
• Learning should be experimental in nature and
based on principles of adult learning.
One of the central ideas in the use of these methods
are that those being studied gain something from
the process of research and this was one of the cen-
tral concerns of the group whilst carrying out our
eldwork. It is hoped that despite our limitaons
and with necessary humility that this is something
which was to some extent achieved.
REFERENCES
1) Paulo Freire, ‘Pedagogy of the oppressed’, Connuum,
1981
2) S.Kumar, ‘Methods for Community Parcipaon: A
complete guide for praconers’, ITDG Publishing
An example of a focus-group plan
This focus group will aempt to draw answers for
the following two quesons:
1. What potenal tensions exist across stake
holder groups?
2. What are the barriers and opportunies
to foster trust and reciprocity across stake
holder groups?
The focus group will begin by brainstorming the dif-
ferent stakeholders. These stakeholders will be writ-
ten on cards as they are idened. Any stakeholders
59
Focus
Groups
OtherVisioning
Workshop
Interviews
4 x RD Co-op
Members
7 x Transect Walks
4 x Focus Group
DiscussionsRD and GIDA
Co-op farmers
1 x RD Co-op
Non members
1 x RD Co-op
Members and
Non-members
37 x Basic
Informaon Surveys
9 x Presentaon
Mapping
2 x Parcipatory
Mapping
1 x Joint Plenary
Group Discussion
RD and GIDA
Co-op Farmers
21x Informl
semi-structured
-InstuonalStakeholders
-Farmers
Landguards
4x Group Interviews
-Co-op Exec
Commiee
-Tradional Council
-NGOs
-Market Queens
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: MAY 4-13, 2010
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
indened in Michael’s map that haven’t been listed
by the farmers will be suggested and added with the
consent of the farmers.
The stakeholders will then be arranged into a spec-
trum of posive and negave interacon. The stake-
holders will also be placed according to how closely
they interact with the cooperave. The farmers willbe invited one by one to place them and give a short
explanaon as to why they are placed in these posi-
ons.
Stakeholders:
• Castle/ Parlaiment
• MoFA
• Regional Coordinang Council
• AshMA
• Ashaiman Tradional Council
• (G)IDA
• Ashaiman Irrigaon Scheme Cooperave
Society (IDA farmers)
• Ashaiman District Cizens’ Monitoring Com
miee
• Ashaiman Roman Down Farmers’ Coopera
ve
Once the stakeholders are arranged into the spec-
trum, we will make sure everyone is happy and thenask if there have been any specic tensions or possi-
ble points of conict with any of the stakeholders. If
so, these will be wrien onto post it slips and added
to the stakeholder card. If there is a spaal element
to any of the quesons, these will be added by post
it onto the map.
At this point we can introduce the concept of trust
and reciprocity and interrogate whether the more
posive relaons display signs of trust and reciproc-
ity. Hopefully this can be agreed fairly easily.
The claricaon of trust and reciprocity then move
into idenfying barriers and opportunies to in-
crease trust and reciprocity for each stakeholder.
Each card will be reversed and barriers opportuni-
es will be listed.
We then move onto to generate strategies for mov-
ing the negave relaons up the spectrum.
Outcomes
• The farmers reveal that they are registered with
the department of cooperaves since April 7th
2006. Apparently they have a cercate.
• IDA farmers organise group meengs for train-
ing workshops. They are involved with RomanDowns when they need addional farmers re-
garding meengs.
• Market Mommies: reciprocity, but lile trust –
women need to behave more honestly.
• Stool: not trustworthy, but farmers accept that
their support is crucial and therefore they will
have to work together to ensure their security.
MICRO FINDINGS
APPENDIX 1
CPR Rules (The Co-operave)
Analysing the Common Property Regime in Roman
Down
Introducon:
Through extensive empirical research and analysis
Elinor Ostrom and her colleagues idened seven
generic rules that can be applied to common-pool
resource situaons. These seven condions (espe-
cially the rst four) are perceived as those most con-
ducive to eect self-organisaon, while the absence
of any one category of rule might indicate where im-
provements in the system can be made.
Boundary Rules:
Boundaries are simply dened by the granng of
permission to use the land. As this is arranged from
within the CPR it is the farmers themselves who
collecvely (and individually) determine who can
use the land. This explains why we nd pockets of
families in the site – farmers most commonly grant
permission to their relaves and friends to culvate
the land. In instances where a person from outside
the present arrangement (an individual not alreadyinvolved in the CPR) wishes to farm some land they
can negoate with a farmer to use a poron of land
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
if the farmer is willing to give it up. Such an agree-
ment usually involves the new individual paying the
farmer in the form of a cut of the prots made from
the produce, or a proporon of the produce itself.
The condions for use are self-explanatory, and all
prohibit certain acvies. They ensure that a bal-
anced relaonship is maintained between farmers
as they retain a great degree of autonomy over theculvaon of their own crops. Forbidding farmers to
use tools on a Friday is a custom of the Ga people,
who believe that the use of tools on this day will po-
tenally damage the crop. Younger farmers and oth-
ers who are not from this ethnic background, how-
ever, do use tools on Fridays. There is no penalty for
this behaviour as many farmers believe that those
defying the rule will suer from a poor harvest.
Posion Rules:
Ostrom refers to ‘posion rules creang monitors’,
however under this heading the dierent ‘posions’
within the CPR will be examined.
Formal posions within the CPR are unclear. The land
tenure issue is confused, but this should not greatly
inuence the workings of the site as CPR. The obvi-
ous posions on the site then are those of the co-
operave and the co-operave execuve commit-
tee, however even this is voluntary and the CPR canfuncon adequately without it, though many farm-
ers choose to be members of this organisaon.
One formal posion is that of the MoFA Extension
Ocer. His role, we have surmised, is to communi-
cate to the farmers new informaon and legislaon
from the government (presumably from the naon-
al level), to provide technical support concerning
new farming and irrigaon techniques, and to keep
a track of the types of crops grown on the site, and
possibly esmaons of the quanes produced. It
was observed that he has closer es with the co-
operave than the group of farmers as a whole. Fur-
ther research is required in order to fully understand
the various elements of his role.
There is not a formal arrangement for night guards
in RD, however guards are put in place aer thes
have occurred for the following few nights to make
sure they do not happen again. Security in RD is
therefore reacve and never proacve and system-ac in approach.
Finally the market women, while not present on
the site at all, have an informal role not only as cus-
tomers, but as money lenders for short term loans.
Farmers have close es with their respecve cus-
tomers who it seems can dictate what they grow
and provide money for inputs. Again, more research
is required to clarify the extent of this relaonship.
Choice Rules:
The lengthy series of choice rules indicates that the
freedom of the individual farmers to act is fairly ex-
tensive. Because farmers can decide when to sow
their seeds (described to us as being ‘whenever the
land is ready’) they purchase them as individuals
and make no aempts to store them or haggle over
the price. The types of crops grown are decided by
the farmer, but possibly inuence, as menoned, by
the desires of the customer. Many farmers own wa-
ter pumps (petrol-driven), and can choose whether
to buy their own pump or rent from a friend. The
seven underground irrigaon pipes are co-managed
by groups of around 5 individuals who benet from
their use however this is as far as a collaborave ap-
proach to irrigaon goes.
While farmers are free to choose whether they use
chemicals and which ones they use, governmentsubsidies are usually provided to the co-operave
(oering a discount in the region of 30%). This may
demand that farmers use a parcular type/brand of
chemical, and requires follow-up.
Farmers negoate prices with their buyers as indi-
viduals rather than collecvely. This is parcularly
surprising given that farmers meet each season in
order to reach consensus over the quality of the
produce and in doing so, the prices relave to on
another. This illustrates not only a lack of awareness
of their collecve power, but also the strength of the
farmers’ bonds to their customers, hinng at levels
of dependency.
Farmers are free to decide whether or not they join
the co-operave. Membership demands a registra-
on fee and a monthly contribuon. The fact that
not all of the farmers are members of the co-oper-
ave suggests that the actual benets it provides
are either minimal or not well recognised across thewhole groups of farmers.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Farmers have further choices concerning whether
to allow another individual to culvate all or part
of their land, recompense for this agreement might
be arranged as described above (under ‘boundary
rules’). Farmers are also free to employ labourers to
assist on their plots, although in most cases farmers
preferred not to do this, instead acquiring help from
friends and family.
Payo Rules:
The co-operave plays perhaps the greatest role in
internal conict resoluon, acng as a sort of judicial
council when wrongdoings have been commied. It
is not clear whether this posion is only recognised
by co-operave members, or by all RD farmers. First
of all if a thief is caught he is taken to be dealt with
by the Ashaiman municipal police.
The co-operave, or perhaps the enre group of
farmers (this will require further research for clari-
caon) have several procedures in place to combat
individuals who break the rules of the CPR (though
not necessarily the law). If one of the ‘condions
of use’ is broken, for example, oenders will be ex-
pected to reimburse the aected party with com-
pensaon in the form of money or crops. Failure
to do so with a specied meframe may result inthe oender being thrown o the land. The same
pracces apply when a farmer has taken a loan from
the co-operave and if they fail to pay it back within
three months. However, if the banished farmer can
remunerate the aected party/pares and prove
that the lesson has been learnt, they will be granted
access to their plot once again (the plot having been
le untouched in the meanme).
The co-operave (or perhaps the rest of the farmers
on the site; more research is needed) has the means
to provide crisis funding to a farmer if his crops
have failed for any reason. There is also evidence
that where plots have been lost, increasingly to en-
croachment in the northern part of the site, farmers
are reintegrated into the system. This can be as a la-
bourer on another farmer’s plot, being granted per-
mission to use part of another farmer’s plot for their
own culvaon (see ‘boundary rules’), or another
posion within the CPR arrangement. One exam-
ple of a role that we encountered, currently beingperformed by a farmer whose plot had been lost to
encroachment, was that of lier-picker on the site,
though it was not clear who was responsible for pay-
ing the individual.
Informaon Rules:
Informaon regarding the types and numbers of
crops grown, when they are harvested and the rev-enues received are all kept by individual farmers.
Such informaon is not collated by the co-operave
or anyone else within the CPR. One of the tasks of
the MoFA Extension Ocer to the site might be to
record what is being produced and approximately
how much of each crop, but this needs further clari-
caon. The absence of collecve data gathering
concerning the crops and harvest might be recogn-
ised as a factor liming collecve bargaining power
with the market customers.
Scope and Aggregaon Rules:
We found no clear evidence of any scope of aggrega-
on rules present in the Roman Down site.
Areas for further exploraon:
There is a clear need to rafy these rules and to un-
derstand them in greater detail, as has been men-oned in the text above. We ran three group exer-
cises specic to this secon. The rst was a focus
group to understand the norms and ideals present
between the farmers, and included members of the
co-operave and non-members. The second exer-
cise was a group interview in order to further clarify
details about the rules of the RD site, and only in-
cluded co-operave members, whereas the third ac-
vity was a group interview with non-co-operave
farmers aimed at uncovering why they were not
member of the co-operave. We therefore did not
hold a specic acvity with non-co-operave farm-
ers over the norms and rules of the site, and there-
fore our ndings may be slightly biased in favour of
the co-operave.
We also understood when we were in the eld that
a formal document of rules does exist, however we
were unable to gain access to the document while
we were there. It is also unclear whether this rule
set refers only to the co-operave or the whole site(the CPR), and who it was originally wrien by. Final-
ly it must be acknowledged that irrespecve of ev-
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
erything we were told there is a dierence between
spoken norms and rules and performed norms and
rules. Detailed examinaon and assessment of this
requires a dedicated and lengthy study and as such
is well beyond the scope of this assignment.
APPENDIX 2
Analysis of farmers’ ideal situaon versus their
present situaon
Introducon:
The nal future-visioning exercise conducted along
with the GIDA group, involved farmers form the Ro-
man Down cooperave and farmers from the GIDA
cooperave, where they described their utopian vi-
sions for the future of agriculture in Accra, and as-
pects which they thought would exist in the ideal sit-
uaon. These visions were contrasted with exisng
condions, revealed by interpreng evidence gath-
ered from previous focus groups and interviews, ex-
posing the gaps between what is and what ‘should’
be. It is by analyzing these gaps that our strategies
were developed. A brief explanaon of these are as
follows.
Integrated Co-operave
There was a general consensus that farmers should
organise themselves into a much more inclusive,
cohesive interacve cooperave. This was reected
both by the GIDA and RD farmers both suggesng
that they form an umbrella organisaon for the
farmers in Ashaiman as well as by their willingness
to respond to suggesons made by the CBOs present
that they culvate linkages with them to beer gain
legimacy and to beer advocate for themselves.
There is a desire for the RD farmers to be included in
the list of the GIDA farmers, both to access the ser-
vices provided by the GIDA scheme (irrigaon etc.)
and more importantly, to get legimacy as farmers
in the eyes of the tradional chiefs
Leadership Structure
A well organised and structured co-operave with
representave leadership is desired. As things stand,
the cooperave is perceived by the non-coopera-
ve farmers as being organised without a purpose,making it not worthwhile joining, as the perceived
benets are very few. Furthermore, these farmers
expressed views that the leaders have been incum-
bent over the last few years and have not taken part
in a wholly inclusive elecon. This cricism is moot
as the views expressed indicated that the non-coop-
erave farmers seemed to want to have a say in the
vong in spite of not being a part of the co-op. They
also wanted a leadership that would listen to the
views of both co-op as well as non-coop farmers.
Collecve Markeng
Currently, while relave prices are collecvely set
by the farmers, each farmer sll enters negoaons
with the market mommy, thus reducing his bargain-
ing power and the money he makes. If the co-oper-
ave collecvely set a price and stuck to it, it would
benet all the farmers together in the long run. The
farmers were aware of this with some farmers of-
fering loans to their neighbours rather than leng
these needy farmers borrow from market mommies
and lose control of their prices, which would then
drive their own prices down to compete.
Financial Assistance
An ideal co-operave would make it easy for mem-
bers to access funds in seasonal mes of need and in
crisis situaon. Currently, the dependency on marketmommies for funds leads to a loss of independence,
and loss of price seng ability on the part of the
farmers. Loans from the co-op are available but the
lengthy process involved in obtaining them means
that they are only accessed for very large loans.
Polical Parcipaon
The farmers acknowledged that there was a need for
direct polical representaon and some expressed a
desire to see their children becoming policians. As
things stand there are very limited advocacy chan-
nels and avenues of polical representaon, mainly
consisng of channels through the MoFA.
Farming Pracces
The farmers envisaged a future where there was bet-
ter collaboraon and cooperaon among the farm-
ers on various procedures and pracces conducted.
These included beer policies of sharing inputs such
as water (and its pumping), buying seeds/ferlizerscollecvely as well as beer policies and norms on
the producon and processing of waste. There was
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
also a small but growing number of farmers who
were saw the future being more commercially ori-
ented farming, with exports playing a major role in
this vision.
These visions of the future described, oen led to an
idencaon of deciencies in the current state of aairs, and these thus went on to inform the strate-
gies we arrived at.
REFERENCES
1) Ostrom, E., Understanding Internaonal Diversity,
(Princeton: PUP, 2005). Chapter 8: ‘Using Rules as
Tools to Cope with the Commons’, pp.219-254.
ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE
APPENDIX 1
Unabridged version of Room for Manoeuvre
Secon,
RFM
The process of esmang room for manoeuvre be-
gan with rst working with the farmers to idenfy
their exisng acon space, and then invesgang
deeper the stakeholder relaonships at various lev-
els. A focus group idened key stakeholders with
whom the farmers currently interact, arculang
levels of inuence, proximity and the qualitave im-
pact of these interacons. This coupled with the co-
operave execuve commiee interviews, resulted
in four key stakeholders being idened as highly in-
uenal, with parcular regards to the land conict
and the mainstreaming of urban and peri-urban ag-
riculture. Most proximate to the farmers are GIDA
and MoFA; while direct interacon with the Stool
and AshMA is limited, these are seen as highly in-
uenal on the land security issue and a signicant
barrier to long-term agricultural pracces. Further
invesgaon also revealed the presence of a civil so-
ciety actor, the Ashaiman District Cizen’s Monitor-
ing Commiee (DCMC), who has had direct contactwith the farmers of Roman Down and may play a key
role in opening inter-organisaonal dialogue.
MoFA
The primary point of contact with MoFA is the Ag-
ricultural Extension Ocer, through whom Roman
Down farmers receive regular technical guidance.
While MoFA’s claims to support urban agriculture
through support programmes such as “Block Farm-
ing”, Roman Down farmers do not qualify for this orany other support programmes, and are therefore
dependent on vouchers for subsidized ferlizers
through MoFA.
The farmers of Roman Down consider their interac-
on with MoFA posive not only because of techni-
cal support, but also as an ally in the encroachment
issue. It is clear that MoFA plays an important me-
diatory role for the farmers both in physical and in-
stuonal relaonships, but our experience in the
eld calls to queson the transparency of that pro-
cess. Both in terms of technical processes and re-
solving the land conict issue, the current acons of
MoFA have propagated an asymmetry of knowledge
and inuence that has severely restricted the “room
for manoeuvre” of farmers.
However, MoFA is in a unique posion to foster dia-
logue across mulple sectors of governance. Given
current instuonal constraints, this open dialogue
is necessary to the connued existence of UPA inAshaiman.
GIDA
The farmers of Roman Down are most directly de-
pendent on GIDA, as their claim for land security
depends on GIDA’s ownership—during one focus
group some farmers went so far as to describe GIDA
ocials as “like fathers.” Direct relaonships with
GIDA depend largely on the knowledge exchange
between Ashaiman Irrigaon Cooperave farmers
and Roman Down cooperave facilitated with the
the support of Nii Ofoe Hansen of IDA.
One of the key bargaining chips provided through
GIDA is a leer deploring both the exisng resi-
denal construcon on land around the irrigaon
scheme and the Roman Down site, and the resultant
consequences such as black-ow and ooding of
the irrigaon scheme if Roman Down, which is situ-
ated on a ood plain was developed. While the let-ter arculates the physical interdependency of the
two sites, it also emphasizes the technical role GIDA
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
plays in UPA.
Implicitly, the farmers at Roman Down act as stew-
ards for the ood plain, protecng crops, facilies,
and livelihoods upstream. However, according to
ocial GIDA policy, the Roman Down site is an im-
portant passive “buer zone,” where farming is a
secondary acvity, placing Roman Down farmers ina subordinate posion to the physical plant of the
GIDA scheme.
The situaon of GIDA presents two crical oppor-
tunies to expand room for manoeuvre. Neither
GIDA nor Roman Down farmers have capitalized
on the physical role the ood plain plays in the city.
Not only does this aect the future of the irriga-
on scheme, but as the only drainage ouall in the
area, the future of Roman Down will have an eect
on the water and waste management for the enre
municipality [map 4.4]. Farming in the area has the
potenal to go beyond a passive acvity on buer
land, but incorporate new producve norms to har-
ness the environmental character of the ood plain
while acvely protecng necessary open space.
However, this process requires not only investment,
but increased polical will from both Roman Down
farmers and GIDA itself.
Second, by linking the farmers of both cooperaves,GIDA has the potenal to expand the social acon
space for all users. While this is already happening
on an unocial level, the role GIDA plays in recogn-
ising this link will be crical in mobilising social pres-
sure to mainstream SUPA.
Tradional Council
Though the farmers of Roman Down recognise the
vital importance of the Stool in securing the future
of agriculture on site and their right to farm, inter-
acon with the instuon has been categorically
negave. The source of immediate conict has been
sale of land and construcon on farm sites—farm-
ers who have resisted this process have been con-
fronted with “land guards,” who defend the building
sites with weapons. Though the land guards have
not been directly ed to the chiefs, some of the land
sales have been linked to members of the Stool.
An arcle was published in February 2010 reporng
an aempted assault against the farmers and pressby landguards, with specic reference made to the
involvement of the newly appointed Chief has led
to increased tensions between the stool and Roman
Down farmers.
The queson at hand, according to the stool, is
whether Roman Down farmers are in fact legally
farming the site. Since the compulsary purchase of
the land by GIDA in 1977, farmers at Roman Downhave connued working under agreement with GIDA,
no longer negoang with the Stool. In spite of last
years’ meeng among the Stool, MoFA and GIDA
facilitated by DPU researchers, where GIDA claimed
Roman Down farmers as part of their scheme—the
chief holds their lack of formal registraon as a sign
of illegimacy. The Stool has expressed willingness
to negoate the situaon, but this lack of formal
support, compounded with the ulmatum regarding
the rejoinder has placed the Roman Down farmers
into a limited space for acon.
Though interacons are currently antagonisc, the
Stool could be a key ally in supporng the long-term
vision of SUPA in Ashaiman. The stool’s long-term
vision for Ashaiman is for a commercial, “24-hour,”
city, but the Regent recognises the need to maintain
the municipality’s farming history and engage the
indigenous Ga community in farming. Of parcular
interest for him is the need for gainful employment
that might be met with Urban Agriculture, instead of
seeking “white-collar jobs that don’t exist.”
In order to balance this vision for urban develop-
ment with custodianship for Ashaiman’s land and
people, strategic and open negoaon must be pos-
sible with all stakeholders. These negoaons must
not be driven by threat of violence or forced evic-
on, or else the long-term social and instuonal
mainstreaming of SUPA will be untenable. However,
it must be recognised that farmers at Roman Down
will also need to accept the need for strategic com-promise, as any soluon with the Stool will not end
with exisng lines being redrawn.
AshMA
On the ground, focus on AshMA has been on the
enforcement problem of encroaching selement on
farmland and GIDA property. Study of the instu-
on revealed that this construcon is only a physical
manifestaon of a deeper policy issue at play.
The Municipal Coordinang Director for AshMA por-
trayed the struggle with encroachment as the com-
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
peon between the need for housing in a growing
city and the need to grow food. Though apparently
commied to protecng agricultural land, the basic
line from the Municipal Assembly is that urban de-
velopment takes precedence.
Some aenon has been paid to issues of encroach-
ment, demolion had taken place in the Spring of 2010 of informal housing around waterways, includ-
ing the drainage leading to Roman Down as part of a
naonal exercise, but the major focus is on housing
development around the GIDA reservoir. The Chief
Excecuve and planners alike have espoused a com-
mitment to protect the GIDA scheme, but like the
tradional council, the planners of AshMA do not
consider Roman Down as farming land.
As stated earlier, plans are already in place to build
on parts of Roman Down, this is permissible through
AshMA’s Town and County Planning policies because
Roman Down is not classied as acvely farmed
land, but rather an undeveloped buer zone.
As a new municipality, AshMA has the opportunity
to make advances in its vision for a sustainable city.
To date, however the process has been guided from
within the planning instuon without the sustained
input of other stakeholders in the city.
Civil Society
It has only been in the last year that civil society
actors have made contact with Roman Down. The
Ashaiman DCMC, a new entrant to UPA issues, be-
gan the process with an agricultural budget tracking
project at the behest of Send-Ghana. The DCMC is
composed of a network of NGOs and CBOs led by
Braimah Abdulai of the Rural-Urban Women and
Children Development Agency and includes parci-
pant from health, educaon, and women’s groups
as well as representaves from the municipal as-
sembly, tradional council. Addionally, Secretary
Bae of the RD cooperave is also a representave
on the commiee, potenally providing a direct ac-
cess point for advocacy and dialogue between UPA
praconers and instuonal actors.
Though Send-Ghana, a naonal NGO charged with
monitoring pro-poor policies at all levels of govern-
ment, directed the formaon of the DCMC and pro-
vides direcves on projects, the DCMC idened
encroachment as a pressing issue for smallholder
farmers of Ashaiman and have connued to remain
acve advocates. From this perspecve of advo-
cacy, one of the soluons proposed by the group isa barrier to demarcate the farmland from the city.
Though the DCMC does contain representaves of
the approach again shows a narrow focus on en-
forcement issues without addressing the underlying
threats to UPA in the city.
One of the biggest barriers, according to Abdulai,
is the limitaon on resources for advocacy. How-
ever, the group has yet to fully employ the social re-
sources at its disposal. The potenal for this kind of
resource-building was on display on 11 May, when
farmers of Roman Down and the GIDA scheme col-
lecvely met to build their own vision for SUPA.
Also present was a member of the DCMC as well as
Charles Zukka, the Ashaiman leader of the Ghana
Federaon for the Urban Poor. As all present talked
about the importance of Unity, Zukka presented the
case of the Federaon for the Urban Poor, where the
group was not only successful in its saving schemes,
but was able to partner with the Stool and AshMA to
iniate a community-led slum upgrading scheme. ,If it can build on these kind of social resource, the
DCMC can play a key role in bridging the gap be-
tween aspiraons for SUPA and the praccal reali-
es of policy-makers.
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
Table of farmers’ relaonships with key stakeholders. The X axis indicates posive (right) and negave (le)
relaons. The Y axis indicates their proximity to the Farmers (the nearer the boom the closer)
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
APPENDIX 1
Web of Instuonalisaon
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
APPENDIX 2
Key Actors: Discourse, Policy and Acon on
Urban Agriculture
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
MISCELLANEOUS
APPENDIX 1
Newspaper Arcle in Metro News
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ROMAN DOWN- ASHAIMAN Sustainable Urban and Peri urban Agriculture
APPENDIX 2
GIDA LETTER
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