Adaptation of Urban Vegetable Farmers to Urban Change in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area

Ghana’s urban change has been intense and rapid on several fronts over the past years. This has affected several economic activities within the urban space of which one is urban agriculture. Urban agriculture has over the years attracted attention in research due to its significance in the urban space. Notwithstanding the attention given in research, the assessment of urban farmers’ adaptation to the effect of the rapid urban change has not been given a detailed attention in literature. This study, which had an overarching question of how urban farmers are adapting to the effects of urban change on their farming activities within the context of institutional frameworks and roles, was situated in change, resilience and behaviour theories. Using a collective case study design and pragmatist research approach, the study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed method, which had qualitative as the leading research approach and with quantitative following. The sources of the qualitative data used were interviews from farmers, interviews from institutional representatives, and institutional policy documents that influence urban agriculture. The quantitative data was from a survey of 251 farmers, and rainfall, humidity and temperature data from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMA). In examining the importance of institutional frameworks and roles in urban agriculture, the effect of urban change on urban farmers’ activities and the adaptation strategies farmers use with respect to urban change, content and thematic analyses of the interviews conducted and government policy documents were mainly used, with some descriptive statistics supporting. In estimating the factors that determine urban farmers’ adaption to urban change, a quantitative approach, which combined principal component analysis and ordinary least squares was used. The following findings were made based on the analyses. Institutional actors are involved in urban agriculture promotion through the training of farmers, provision of logistics and land for production, notwithstanding the fact that the changing urban environment makes it difficult for them to help the farmers. The institutions, which provide lands to the farmers do not have any official agreement with the farmers and sometimes abuse them even though they are a tremendous source of support to farmers. While some of the urban changes have brought only positive or only negative effects to urban farmers, others have brought both to them. The study could not conclude on which set of effects of urban change was more significant. While some adaptation strategies targeted an effect, others targeted more than one effect, which was positive or negative. The ordinary least square estimates proved that production adaptation can be predicted more than marketing and finance adaptation, by personal and farm characteristics of urban farmers in the context of urban change. The study recommends the drafting of a comprehensive urban agriculture policy in Ghana, which focuses on the provision of land and water for urban agriculture, training of urban vegetable farmers and the strengthening of the institutions whose operations affect urban agriculture in the area of coordination, cooperation and promotion of urban agriculture. In the absence of a comprehensive UA policy, MMDAs should consciously make room for UA especially in their spatial planning decisions. Government and urban dwellers as well should also see urban expansion as an opportunity to create urban employment and a way to improve the welfare of city dwellers and this should be integrated into city planning. Institutions must use multi-faceted and targeted strategies in helping farmers to adapt to the positive and negative effects of urban change, and farmers must be encouraged to transfer their knowledge and skill in adaptation to other farmers.