TY - JOUR
T1 - Traditional and Western knowledge systems used by smallholders
T2 - Harnessing synergies for improved household food security in rural Ghana
AU - Pervarah, Michael
AU - Yaro, Joseph A.
AU - Derbile, Emmanuel K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Norwegian Geographical Society.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The discourse on knowledge integration persists in research and development practice. The need for traditional and Western knowledge systems to work together to achieve sustainable agricultural development in Ghana’s rural areas has become evermore relevant to achieve household food security in the context of changing climate, declining soil fertility, and labour challenges. The authors examined the role of knowledge integration in shaping the food security outcomes of socially differentiated smallholders’ households in Kassena-Nankana Municipal District and the Kassena-Nankana West District in the Upper East Region of Ghana, where food insecurity prevalence is very high. Using mixed methods approach, they found that most low resource endowed households that were unable to combine traditional and Western farming methods were more likely to experience food insecurity than were other households. Farmers with higher resource endowments integrated knowledges from both traditional and Western systems leading to better yield outcomes. However, combining both knowledge systems did not guarantee automatic success due to intervening factors. The authors conclude that different categories of smallholders’ resource endowment significantly impacts the smallholders’ food security status, and recommend that policy and development programming should promote integration of traditional and Western farming knowledge systems to achieve sustainable food crop production.
AB - The discourse on knowledge integration persists in research and development practice. The need for traditional and Western knowledge systems to work together to achieve sustainable agricultural development in Ghana’s rural areas has become evermore relevant to achieve household food security in the context of changing climate, declining soil fertility, and labour challenges. The authors examined the role of knowledge integration in shaping the food security outcomes of socially differentiated smallholders’ households in Kassena-Nankana Municipal District and the Kassena-Nankana West District in the Upper East Region of Ghana, where food insecurity prevalence is very high. Using mixed methods approach, they found that most low resource endowed households that were unable to combine traditional and Western farming methods were more likely to experience food insecurity than were other households. Farmers with higher resource endowments integrated knowledges from both traditional and Western systems leading to better yield outcomes. However, combining both knowledge systems did not guarantee automatic success due to intervening factors. The authors conclude that different categories of smallholders’ resource endowment significantly impacts the smallholders’ food security status, and recommend that policy and development programming should promote integration of traditional and Western farming knowledge systems to achieve sustainable food crop production.
KW - household food security
KW - knowledge integration
KW - rural Ghana
KW - smallholder
KW - traditional knowledge
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179672976&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00291951.2023.2289516
DO - 10.1080/00291951.2023.2289516
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85179672976
SN - 0029-1951
VL - 77
SP - 296
EP - 309
JO - Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift
JF - Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift
IS - 5
ER -