Manufacturing Scarcity: Understanding the Causes of Conflicts Between Farmers and Herders in Asante Akim North Municipality of Ghana

ABSTRACT

Farmer-herder conflicts are widespread in many parts of Africa. Scholars disagree on their causes. One strand associates conflict with absolute scarcities caused by for example population growth and climate change. Other scholars emphasize politically established scarcities: scarcities caused by policies, legislation, and development programs. This paper examines the causes of farmer-herder conflict in the case of Asante Akim North Municipality of Ghana; an area that has suffered from severe conflicts for the past two decades. The study relies on documentary materials and interviews with 53 respondents representing all main agents with a stake in the conflict. The paper argues that absolute scarcity (population growth and climate change) may play a role in conflict, but the key driver of conflict is political. The paper shows how the traditional authorities have allocated land to outside cattle owners without effective institutions to guide cattle herding. This has created conflicts between traditional farming and new herding interests. The paper contributes to the literature on farmer-herder conflict and political scarcity by presenting a case where scarcity is not produced by state-led policies and interventions at large-scale but by local-level traditional authorities and small-scale enclosures.

KEYWORDS:

• Access
• farmer-herder conflict
• land
• pastoralists
• political scarcity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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36. The Traditional Council is an advisory and regulatory body to the chieftaincy institution tasked to offer constructive advice and guidance to the Paramount Chief and also serve as a check against despotism and abuse of power. The council ensures the chief rule in accordance with customs and tradition with the interest and rights of subjects as their topmost priority. Although land is entrusted to the chief, the council by tradition is mandated to check against dispossession against indigenes.

37. Secretary to the stool lands (Land Administrator) is an individual legally or traditionally mandated to register and prepare documentation for the sale or lease of lands.

38. The family head is the head of a lineage tasked to lead and govern the activities of members. While the Akan society is matrilineal in terms of inheritance, the leadership is given to a male who controls and manages land for all members. He also performs rituals and settles disagreements among members.

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41. All amounts given in USD are based on a conversion of the amount in cedis using the Bank of Ghana exchange rate at the time of the transaction. This takes the heavy depreciation of the cedis against USD over time into consideration.

42. Interview no. 3, An indigenous farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, April 14, 2021.

43. Interview no. 26, A Land Administrator in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 24, 2021.

44. Interview no.1, A village chief in Asante Akim North Municipality, April 14, 2021.

45. Interview no. 8, A family head in Asante Akim North Municipality, May 8, 2021.

46. Interview with no. 2, An indigenous farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, April 14, 2021.

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48. Interview no. 7, A village chief in Asante Akim North Municipality, April 22, 2021.

49. Interview no. 4, A family head in Asante Akim North Municipality, April 16, 2021.

50. Interview no. 18, A member of the Agogo Traditional Council, June 20, 2021.

51. Interview no. 6, A migrant farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, April 22, 2021.

52. Interview no. 17, A veterinary officer in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 20, 2021.

53. Interview no. 10, A village chief in Asante Akim North Municipality, May 8, 2021.

54. Interview no. 20, A cattle herder in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 20, 2021.

55. Interview no. 14, A settler cattle owner in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 16, 2021.

56. Interview no. 15, A cattle owner in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 17, 2021.

57. Agogo Traditional Council, “Lease between Nana Akuoku Sarpong and Cattle Owners at the Afram Plains,” (July, 2006).

58. Agogo Traditional Council, “Official Receipt for the land leased to Alhaji Dauda Kassim,” (January 15, 2008).

59. Interview no.16, A cattle owner in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 17, 2021.

60. Interview no. 13, A cattle herder in Asante Akim North Municipality, May 29, 2021.

61. Interview no.12, A cattle herder in Asante Akim North Municipality, May 29, 2021.

62. Interview no. 19, A cattle herder in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 20, 2021.

63. Interview no.22, A cattle herder in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 22, 2021.

64. Interview no. 40, A village chief in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 26, 2021.

65. Interview no. 47, A migrant farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, July 3, 2021.

66. The Agogo Mman Mma Worldwide Association is a coalition of indigenes from the Agogo Traditional Area both within and outside the community with the aim of seeking the welfare and development of the area.

67. Agogo Mman Mma World Association, “The Presence of the Fulani Herdsmen and their Cattle at Afram Plains section of Asante Akim North Municipal of Agogo Stool Lands,” (14th February, 2011).

68. The Dadson Committee was a seven-member investigative body instituted by the Ashanti regional minister to investigate the causes of the April 10th, 2010 disturbances that emerged in Asante Akim Agogo over the presence and atrocities caused by cattle herdsmen.

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71. Interview no. 46, A migrant farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, July 2, 2021.

72. Agogo Youth Associations, “The Fulani must go,” Press release on the continuous incursion of Fulani herdsmen and foreigners on Agogo lands, (2016).

73. Interview no. 11, An indigenous farmer in Abrewapong; a farming community in Asante Akim North Municipality, May 8, 2021.

74. Interview no.43, A migrant farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 30, 2021.

75. Interview no 41, An affected farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, June 26, 2021.

76. Interview no. 39, A farmer in Asante Akim North Municipality, June, 26, 2021.

77. Interview no. 50, A herder in Asante Akim North Municipality, July 6, 2021.

78. The Asantehene is the traditional ruler of the Asante people and lands. The Asante kingdom holds 47 paramountcies with authority exercised by traditional authorities. In 1980, the late Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II upgraded the status of the Agogo traditional area to a paramountcy.

79. Concerned citizens of Agogo & Agogo Youth Associations, “Notice of destoolment of Nana Kwame Akuako Sarpong as Omanhene of Agogo Traditional Area,” (2012).

80. Interview no. 44, A leading member of the Agogo Mma Kuo in Municipal Capital (Agogo), July 2, 2021.

81. Field observation in Ananekrom, (a farming community in the Asante Akim North Municipality), June 20, 2021.

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Additional information

Funding

This research forms part of the Access-Authority Nexus in Farmer-Herder Conflicts Project (AAN) funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark under grant 18-14-GHA.