Vulnerability and urban farming: Coping with price volatility in Ejisu-Juaben municipality, Ghana

Abstract

Urban farmers remain vulnerable and trapped in poverty due to urbanisation and food crop and input price volatility. However, studies on the causes and effects as well as coping strategies to the phenomena remain inconclusive amidst diminishing urban farmlands, as the focus has been on smallholders in rural areas. This paper examines the attitudes of urban farmers on the strategies adopted to cope with input and crop price fluctuations in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, Ghana. Data obtained from 380 respondents showed that four major factors influence the volatility of input prices: oil prices, exchange rates, cocoa producer prices and inflation. Farmers, however, had no coping strategies to these due to the limited control over them. Two key factors were noted to influence crop price fluctuation: natural and demand and supply factors. Farmers coped with food crop price fluctuations by: adding value to crops; farming in flood plains; diversifying income sources and shifting to cocoa cultivation. A shift to cocoa production and farming in flood plains was however revealed to have adverse environmental and ecological implications. The paper recommends the promotion of contractual farming to safeguard farmers against income falls; and the formulation of an environmental strategy which emphasises drought-resistant crop varieties with shorter gestation periods as well as promoting sustainable land and water management practices.