Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In Amanase-Whanabenya demonstration site, the settlement morphology is
nucleated in Amanase and other areas owned by Akuapem migrant farmers, and
is, as in the case of Sekesua-Osonson, linear in Whanabenya and other areas
owned by migrant Siade/Shai farmers. Accordingly, in the selected Siade settle-
ments (Whanabenya-Nyamebekyere, Obongo, and Abenabo; Table 12.2), the sur-
vey followed both systematic and purposeful sampling, depending upon layout of
the houses. As in the case of Sekesua-Osonson, in Amanase-Whanabenya the
choice of settlements was made in consultation with the leadership of the local
PLEC farmers' association.
On the basis of the preceding methodology, in the survey as many as 804 com-
pound houses distributed among 31 settlements came to be involved (Table 12.2),
which provides a solid basis for making generalizations.
Each compound involved was visited and, using the recording sheet noted
above (Table 12.1), the owner or operator of its home gardens interviewed on
relevant aspects of the home garden management and the number of people resi-
dent in the compound. Home garden size was estimated by pacing around the
perimeter. A rough-and-ready idea of plant species and of soil and topographi-
cal conditions was obtained by observation by eye. The auger was used to take
samples of soil for laboratory analysis.
The survey probed further by selecting for closer study a few of the gardens
surveyed around three of the compounds in the demonstration sites. Key methods
involved were:
•
plants diversity assessment by quadrats (Zarin, Huijin, and Enu-Kwesi, 1999)
•
observations on the utility of the identified plants
•
assessment of economic and remunerative potential of crops and other useful
plants.
Following is a discussion of selected aspects of the huge amount of informa-
tion generated from the fieldwork.
Management and organizational characteristics
On the whole, the gardens are small in size and located at the outskirts where
there is more room.
Size ranges from less than 0.2 ha (0.5 acres) in a majority of cases to about
0.6 ha (1.5 acres). The smallness of size is in accord with the universal pattern. It
is explained by competition with housing for land, by a need for intensive care, and
for protection from goats and other foraging domestic livestock on the loose, par-
ticularly in a situation where gardens are generally not fenced off or effectively
hedged (Table 12.3).
In Sekesua-Osonson and portions of Amanase-Whanabenya (especially
Whanabenya, Nyamebekyere, and Obongo) that are occupied by Adangbe-speaking
