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Urbanization, agricultural land use change and livelihood adaptation strategies in peri-urban Wa, Ghana

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Abstract

Urbanization, coupled with uncontrolled land use change, is posing serious livelihood challenges to households in developing countries. Undoubtedly, urbanization has been observed to be in serious contest with agriculture for land space in peri-urban areas. With urbanization taking a rapid and major toll on livelihoods through the annexing of agricultural lands for farming, this study seeks to examine the livelihood options/strategies available to peri-urban dwellers in the Wa Municipality who depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The study adopts the concurrent embedded mixed methods research design to study 394 randomly selected residents in four (4) of ten (10) peri-urban communities in the Municipality. Structured questionnaires are administered to household heads and complemented with in-depth interviews involving chiefs, family/clan heads, tindanas (Land Priest) and the land sector agencies. The questionnaires are analyzed descriptively using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 while the interviews are analyzed using the thematic analysis. In determining the relationship between residents’ livelihood adaptation strategies and agricultural land use change as a result of urbanization, a linearity test is performed. The results of the study show that households engaged a mix of non-farm and on-farm livelihood adaptation strategies to response to the agricultural land use change instigated by urbanization. The results of the test of linearity also reveal that trading/petty business, exchange of labor for pay and migration are significantly related to agricultural land use change as a result of urbanization. The study recommends the need for the Municipal Assembly, Ministry of Land and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture to devise and implement possible alternative livelihoods support systems to help the study communities respond to the urbanization and agricultural land use change.

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Fig. 1

Source adopted from Oduro et al. (2015)

Fig. 2

Source Wa Municipal Assembly (2012)

Fig. 3

Source Field Data, 2019

Fig. 4

Source Field Data, 2019

Fig. 5

Source Field Data, 2019

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Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the Traditional Authorities, Wa Municipal Assembly, heads of households in the study communities and our cherished field assistants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Development, Faculty of Planning and Land Management, Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana

    Samuel Ziem Bonye, Thaddeus Arkum Aasoglenang & Gordon Yenglier Yiridomoh

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  1. Samuel Ziem Bonye
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  2. Thaddeus Arkum Aasoglenang
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  3. Gordon Yenglier Yiridomoh
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Contributions

This was a collaborative work of the three authors. ‘Author A’ (SZB) designed the study, wrote the protocol, and took part in the first draft of the manuscript. ‘Author B’ (TAA) wrote the literature section of the study while ‘Author C’ (GYY) managed the analyses of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Samuel Ziem Bonye.

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Bonye, S.Z., Aasoglenang, T.A. & Yiridomoh, G.Y. Urbanization, agricultural land use change and livelihood adaptation strategies in peri-urban Wa, Ghana. SN Soc Sci 1, 9 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-020-00017-1

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