Labor, Ecology, and a Failed Agenda of Market Incentives: The Political Ecology of Agrarian Reforms in Ghana

In spite of comprehensive market-based reforms and expanding economic incentives to engage in agricultural activities in Ghana, average agricultural growth between 1985 and 1995 remained stagnant at 2 percent per annum, far below the World Bank’s anticipated 4 percent annual growth. Based on an in-depth and primarily qualitative study of a sample of more than 200 farmers in the Berekum District of Ghana over the period 1985 – 1995, this article addresses the question of the slow growth in agriculture. The study investigates which farmers are able to expand production under the conditions of economic reform, and why. In addressing this problem, this article focuses at the point of production and employs a regional political-ecology perspective to indicate how the economic behavior of farmers–the focus of agricultural reforms–is inextricably bound to the culture, politics, and ecology of production within which farmers are embedded. More specifically, the discussion seeks to show that expansion in productio...