ABSTRACT
Rural-urban migration is a major challenge in traditionally migration prone areas such as Nkoranza South Municipality in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. Food system and its related activities embedded in agriculture, for example, non-mechanized farming suffer the most as a result of labour shortage associated with out-migration from farming areas. Some specific objectives of the study were to identify community perception about rural-urban migration and to determine perceived effects of rural-urban migration on some aspect of food systems (weeding, planting, harvesting and transporting) from the farmer‟s perspective in some communities (Ahyiayem, Asonkwaa and Nyinase) in Nkoranza. The research design that was adopted for the study was mixed methods. The sample size was made up of 270 farmers within the communities, selected through a multistage sampling procedure. Instruments used for the study were structured questionnaires and in-depth interview guides. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS and the qualitative through the use of thematic analysis. The results show that decrease in food production, reduce farming income and loss of labour for farming activities were the most immediate impact of migration on food systems. The findings further indicated that non-mechanization type of farming in the area has made specific components of food systems such as weeding, planting, harvesting and transporting of produce labour intensive due to out-migration, with the majority (87.4%) relying on hired labour elsewhere in the absence of family labour for farm work. It again reveals that significant proportion of farmers attributed migration as the cause of decreased labour in the area with more than half of the farmers acknowledging a direct link on the impact of labour availability on food production. In spite, of the perceived negative impact of migration on food systems, migration also impacted positively on the left-behind families and their livelihood in general due to receipt of remittances. It is concluded that food production activities were affected by migration in the area of labour and income generation from farming. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that traditional agriculture and food systems should be improve by establishing agro processing factories to reduce the amount of food wastage during harvest. Mechanize farming should be supported by government in the absence of human labour for farm work. Finally, since agriculture is dominated by men in the study area, agricultural policies should mainstream women engagement and encourage them into the sector.
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
This chapter introduces the background to migration, problem statement, objectives, research questions, significant of the study, organization of the chapters and other relevant issues related to the study.
Background
Rural-urban migration accounts for over half the growth of most African cities and at the same time, out-migration of labour from agriculture has been one factor leading to national food deficits as well as rising food prices in many African countries (Tacoli, McGranahan & Satterthwaite, 2015) including Ghana. This type of movement is fueled by economic opportunities as manifested in many African urban cities where infrastructural and industrial development continues to take place to the detriment of the rural areas (Pott, 2016).
Generally, women participate in some aspects of farming but the major areas, including weeding farms, sections of planting, harvesting and transporting from the farms are mostly dominated by young people especially males (Ibnouf, 2011). A large number of these youth migrating from the rural centers to urban areas will have significant impact on food systems, especially in developing countries (Lipton, 1980). Ghana, being a developing country, is highly dependent on agriculture for food and foreign exchange (World Bank, 2014). When these able bodied youth migrate, women, children and the aged left behind may not be in a position to compensate for the lost labour and may likely affect the number of hectares cultivated.
Prior to commercialization of agriculture, farmers who practiced subsistence farming made use of family members and sometimes communal labour. They had been used for purposes
including cocoa cultivation in the south, yam production in the north as well as maize production in other parts of the country. All these, to a large extent, attracted seasonal migrants to cocoa farms and other farms as well. Currently family labour is limited as a result of out-migration, seasonal migration and educational opportunities for children. Meanwhile, agriculture is not mechanized and it is therefore significant to examine the effect of out- migration on food systems in such places where food production has been important.
According to Regmi (2014), urban areas are likely to absorb all the future population, thus it is partially reflective that rural-urban migration has been on the increase. He further indicated that nearly 35 percent of the contemporary urban population growth worldwide is accredited to rural-urban migration. According to the United Nations report (UN, 2014), urbanization together with the total growth of the world‟s population could increase by another 2.5 billion people in urban areas by 2050. It further indicates that 50 percent of the estimated increase in the world‟s urban population will come from rural-urban migrants located in Asia, Africa and Latin America. From this report, it is obvious that rural-urban migration can translate into a declining agricultural output if the necessary measures are not put in place to encourage the youth to stay in the rural agricultural sector instead of migrating to urban centers.
Rural areas and their labour are essential whenever issues of food systems surface. Loss of this labour to urban areas through migration brings about poverty, food insecurity and weakening of the components of the food systems (Tacoli & Agergaard, 2017). At the same time the world‟s urban population will continue to grow by more than a billion people, with the majority from rural areas, according to United Nation projection for the period between 2010 and 2025 (UN, 2008) while rural population will hardly grow at all. This explains the likelihood that considerable proportion of the world population not engaging in food
production will continue to increase which brings major changes to agriculture and food systems (Satterthwaite & Tacoli, 2017).
In Ghana, food production is mostly done by the rural dwellers. This situation is becoming worrisome since the population growth as well as rural-urban migration in Ghana is likely to be twice the current rate of increase in 25 years‟ time (NCBI, 2013). This juxtaposes the report that the distribution of the type of migrants in Ghana‟s rural-urban migration increased from 1998/99 to 2014 that is 4.90% to 48.6% respectively (GLSS6, 2014). These current trends are indicative that rural-urban migration is likely to affect food systems if appropriate policies are not taken to deal with the out-migration of the youth from rural areas.
According to Beale and Sloan (2002), rural-urban migration has important “Push” and “Pull” implication for agricultural food systems because it competes for the youth resources required for these agricultural industries. The farm labour in recent times faces challenges because growing opportunities in the urban centers has particularly drawn the youth away from the rural areas. This is critical since this form of migration distorts the demographic profile of those left behind in the agricultural sector that is the aged and children. This form of migration has also led to high urban unemployment rate and associated urban poverty.
Others have argued that rural-urban migration is inevitable and usually has adverse impact on the various food systems (Zhao, 1999). The present study was undertaken to examine the perceived impact of rural-urban migration on systems. In this study, food systems is defined as the processes and infrastructures that comprise weeding, planting, harvesting and transporting of food to the market.
Statement of problem
Global food systems generally consist of three forms namely, traditional, modernized and industrialized (McCullough et al., 2010). However, the traditional food system feeds nearly 80 percent of the population in developing countries (IFAD, 2013). The traditional food system which is associated with developing countries mostly produce raw food instead of manufactured products and this requires labour at each stage in order to sustain it.
The traditional food systems in developing countries are being threatened in recent times due to substantial out-migration of the rural work force to urban centers (Garret & Ruel, 2000). This has led to the decline of agricultural labourer as a result of the transition from agrarian to an industrial economy at both macro and micro levels (Sanderson, 2012). Generally, the number of people engaged in agriculture and food system activities have dwindled (World bank, 2011) compelling people in rural areas to move to urban centers due to economic and environmental factors associated with these areas. This emerging phenomenon according to FAO (2003), is unprecedented since it creates continuous shortage of labour needed for food system and it related activities (Yakovleva et al., 2004). This confirms the assertion that 60 percent of the world population (4.2 billion people) have been freed from work such as food labourers (Sanderson, 2012: Griffith, 2007). However, Nkoranza South Municipality is one of the localities in the country that is vulnerable to both internal and international migration and has suffered reduction in food system and its related activities over the years due to the magnitude of migration trends (NSM, 2014).
