Resource access and distribution and the use of land in Tano-Odumasi, central Ghana - Managing Agrodiversity the Traditional Way - page 233

The concept of afupa as a livelihood strategy

Afupa , “the real farm”, is the old traditional small peasant farm in which every
attempt is made to satisfy the subsistence or food security needs of the house-
hold. The relative importance of this must be viewed in relation to the sources of
income of the people. As indicated in Table 19.2, 62 per cent of them depend
solely on farming for their income. It is interesting to note that irrespective of
size, all other fields with plant species compositions that do not correspond to
the mix of crops described above (including the most popular maize/cassava
intercrops or monocrop) are regarded as inferior or less important and not
considered to be real farms.
When one is informed that a farmer has left for “his farm” without any
further information, it means, to the people of Tano-Odumasi, that the farmer
has actually gone to his real farm or afupa . However, when one is informed that
a farmer has gone to “the farm”, afuom , further questions need to be posed to
ascertain which particular field is being referred to. This minor distinction in
the words of the people has important household food security implications. It
is embedded in the definition of afupa as “a field on which one can depend on
to provide the food needs of the household, or a field that provides everything
we need” (personal communication with Yaw Bio, a PLEC farmer of Tano-
Odumasi).
Consequently, the traditional afupa has always been associated with the most
fertile lands of the household, which, however, are now getting increasingly located
further away from the settlement.
Another feature of afupa is its symbolic position. Generally, every family of
the landowning group and, to a small extent, a few immigrants of good standing
possess it.

Orchards

Under orchards, the different field types include cocoa, citrus, and oil-palm
plantations in various stages of establishment. Cocoa plantations are usually
developed on tree-dominated fallows or mature uncultivated forests because of
the initial shade requirements of seedlings. Citrus and oil-palm plantations, on

Table 19.2 Sources of income in Tano-Odumasi

Source of income Males Females Total

Full-time farming 38 38 76 (62%)

Non-farming 20 27 47 (38%)

Total 58 65 123