Search Results (7)

(1) Background: Spatial energy expenditure patterns, driven by physical activity, particularly among females, remain underexplored in Ghana. This study, therefore, investigates spatial energy expenditure clustering or dispersion patterns using metabolic equivalents of task (METs) values among Ghanaian females across rural and urban areas. (2) Methods: Using 13,799 data from the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, METs values were assigned to self-reported occupation categories as proxies for physical activity. Global and local spatial autocorrelation metrics (Queen contiguity and Moran’s I) were employed to assess spatial clustering or dispersion of METs values across the 16 administrative regions. (3) Results: Rural females reported higher METs (mean = 3.35 ± 1.627) and lower BMI (23.476 ± 3.888) than urban females (METs: mean = 2.42 ± 1.208, BMI: 25.313 ± 4.854). There was a significant but weak global spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s I = 0.003, p-value = 0.001), with stronger clustering observed in rural (Moran’s I = 0.004, p-value = 0.001) than in urban areas (Moran’s I = 0.002, p-value = 0.002). Also, High–High clusters were prevalent in the Northern, Savannah and Northeast regions particularly due to the lingering labour-intensive occupations as compared to Low–Low clusters in the Eastern and Greater Accra regions where jobs are often desk-based and sedentary. (4) Conclusions: Given the revealed geographic heterogeneity (High–High and Low–Low clustering) of female energy expenditure in Ghana, there is a need for regionally tailored health policies targeting physical inactivity and its associated risks. Full article

Evidence on how coping practices for immediate climate variations can transform into long-term adaptive capacity are relatively limited. This study addressed this gap by identifying the coping practices for short-term climate variations and the adaptation measures used by smallholder farmers to address future climate change in northeast Ghana. The paper used a mixed-methods approach, including household surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Data were collected from 555 households located in six communities across three districts in northeast Ghana. Results indicated that smallholder farmers were employing a host of practices to address the threats posed by climate change. Key adaptation practices included the planting of drought-tolerant crop varieties, the use of indigenous knowledge, intensification of irrigation, migration, adjusting the planting calendar, crop diversification, mixed farming, and sustainable land management practices. On the contrary, short-term coping practices reported by the study participants included the sale of non-farm assets, complementing agriculture with non-farm jobs, selling livestock, engaging in wage labor, charcoal burning and reliance on social networks. The results further revealed that barriers to climate change adaptation and coping practices differed by gender. The paper recommends that capacities of smallholder farmers in vulnerability hotspots should be enhanced to address immediate climate variations, as well as future climate changes. Ghana’s climate change and agricultural policies should prioritize adaptations by smallholder farmers in addressing threats posed by climate change. Full article

As part of global efforts to address the challenges that are confronting groundwater for various purposes (including irrigation), engineering methods such as Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) have been adopted. This wave of MAR has engulfed some parts of Northern Ghana, characterized by insufficient groundwater for dry-season irrigation. Inspired by the strides of these schemes, the paper assesses the institutional feasibility of MAR methods in the Atankwidi catchment where dry-season farmers may lose their source of livelihood due to limited access to groundwater. We used both primary and secondary data, together with policy documents, to address the following questions: (i) What provisions and impacts formal government institutions had for MAR, and; (ii) what catchment-level institutions exist which may influence MAR. The results show that formal government institutions do not prohibit the adoption of MAR in the country. Among these institutions, it is realized that laws/legislative instruments provide sufficient information and support for MAR than policies and administrative agencies. Moreover, catchment-level institutions which are informal in the form of taboos, rules, norms, traditions, and practices, together with local knowledge play a significant role as far as groundwater issues in the catchment are concerned, and are important for the adoption of MAR methods. Full article

The use of groundwater resources for dry season irrigation has gained currency in Ghana. The north-east of the country has seen the cultivation of vegetables using groundwater from shallow aquifers; an emerging livelihood activity which lessens food insecurity and stems the tide of rural–urban migration. This practice in northern Ghana is deeply rooted in local knowledge. Using the Atankwidi catchment, this paper examines the role of local knowledge in understanding and exploiting groundwater for irrigation. A qualitative approach was used which allowed for in-depth catchment-level investigations, using group discussions, key informant interviews and informal discussions with irrigators, traditional leaders, earth priests, men, and women. Evidence from analysis revealed that local knowledge enabled farmers to locate groundwater points and determine the source and timing of groundwater recharge. Traditional communities are also able to identify the period for constructing wells. In addition, local knowledge enabled farmers to adopt strategies of conjunctively using groundwater with alternative water to cope with insufficient groundwater resources. We argue that local knowledge serves as a useful tool in sustaining dry season irrigation despite the challenges of a lack of government support and threats of global change. Full article

This paper discusses the evolution of socio-cultural and political relations that defined access to, use, and management of land resources in northeast Ghana during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. The aim is to historicise current meta-narratives about degradation of the natural landscape in the rural savannahs of northeast Ghana. Many of those degradation narratives take their root in the past during the colonial era, but the conceptual underpinnings of those narratives have remained essentially a-historical, a-political, and a-cultural. This paper shows that the organisation of space and land uses in pre-colonial communities in northeast Ghana was governed by certain traditional knowledge systems which were ignored by the colonial authorities. While narratives about landscape degradation by natives were propagated by the colonial government to justify a need to preserve the environment, their attempts to control land management matters were essentially for political and economic reasons. The study concludes that current policy frameworks on desertification and land management need to move beyond inherent historical biases. Rather, attention ought to be given to critical historical reflections on the dynamic processes by which variations in socio-economic relations of resource access/use, farming practices, land tenure arrangements, and political agendas interact with changes in the biophysical environment to produce different land cover trajectories over time. Full article

This study assesses the perceptions of local farming households in the savannahs of northeast Ghana about the patterns of ecological and social changes happening around them over the years. It then unpacks how those perceptions are influencing farming practices and agricultural land use changes. Theoretical and empirical understandings of the value of local resource users’ perceptual judgements about changes in their socio-ecological environment and how they respond to those changes have far-reaching implications for design of agricultural development and sustainable land management policies. Consideration of local perceptions offers more informed basis to design and implement agricultural development policies in ways that encourage active local participation, sustainable livelihoods development, and responsiveness to changing conditions. This departs from current conventional implementation systems, which are usually top-down and based on technical and political aspects of agricultural land management, but do not necessarily comprehend processes influencing the agency of local communities in shaping various agricultural land use outcomes. Full article

Mercury is utilized worldwide in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and may pose a risk for miners and mining communities. While a number of studies have characterized mercury in ASGM communities, most have focused on a single media and few have taken a holistic approach. Here, a multiple media exposure assessment and cross-sectional study of mercury was conducted in 2010 through 2012 in northeast Ghana with a small-scale gold mining community, Kejetia, a subsistence farming community, Gorogo, and an urban ASGM gold refinery in Bolgatanga. The objective was to assess mercury in a range of human (urine and hair) and ecological (household soil, sediment, fish, and ore) samples to increase understanding of mercury exposure pathways. All participants were interviewed on demographics, occupational and medical histories, and household characteristics. Participants included 90 women of childbearing age and 97 adults from Kejetia and 75 adults from Gorogo. Median total specific gravity-adjusted urinary, hair, and household soil mercury were significantly higher in Kejetia miners (5.18 µg/L, 0.967 µg/g, and 3.77 µg/g, respectively) than Kejetia non-miners (1.18 µg/L, 0.419 µg/g, and 2.00 µg/g, respectively) and Gorogo participants (0.154 µg/L, 0.181 µg/g, and 0.039 µg/g) in 2011. Sediment, fish, and ore Hg concentrations were below guideline values. Median soil mercury from the Bolgatanga refinery was very high (54.6 µg/g). Estimated mean mercury ingestion for Kejetia adults from soil and dust exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference dose (0.3 µg Hg/kg·day) for pica (0.409 µg Hg/kg·day) and geophagy (20.5 µg Hg/kg·day) scenarios. Most participants with elevated urinary and household soil mercury were miners, but some non-miners approached and exceeded guideline values, suggesting a health risk for non-mining residents living within these communities. Full article