article · Journal of Urban Affairs
Rapid urban expansion in peri-urban Wa, Ghana, presents direct challenges to local agricultural production and nutrition. An assessment of 261 indigenous household heads and key stakeholders revealed that urban sprawl in this area is defined by low-density residential housing developments, recurring land disputes, and extensive encroachment onto active and fallow farmlands. This physical expansion drastically diminishes the availability of land required for both immediate crop cultivation and necessary fallowing cycles. Consequently, indigenous households relying on home-grown crops are significantly more likely to maintain an acceptable food consumption score compared to those reliant on purchasing food. Households dependent on food purchases predominantly include families that lost their agricultural land to sprawl and subsequently abandoned farming entirely, demonstrating the direct link between urban land conversion and declining nutritional security.
Uncontrolled city expansion often consumes vital agricultural belts surrounding urban centres. As indigenous communities lose their farmlands to housing, their ability to feed themselves weakens, shifting them toward purchased food that may be less accessible or nutritionally adequate. Understanding these dynamics is essential for balancing residential development with local food security.
The abstract does not indicate an application pathway or a direct commercial application, as the research is focused on empirical socio-economic and land use analysis.
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This study responds to the limited literature on the effects of urban sprawl on food security in Ghanaian cities. As the study sought to understand the characteristics, drivers, and challenges of urban sprawl and the threat it poses to the urban food security of indigenous peri-urban households, we drew evidence from peri-urban Wa, Ghana. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 261 randomly sampled indigenous household heads and purposely selected key stakeholders using questionnaires and interview guides, respectively. The study used descriptive statistics, linear regression, and the food consumption score (FCS) to analyze the quantitative data. In contrast, thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data to contextualize the findings from the household survey. According to the results, urban sprawl is characterized by low-density residential housing, recurrent land disputes, and widespread encroachment on active and fallow farmlands. Hence, sprawling reduces land availability for food production and land fallowing. A higher proportion of indigenous households that depend on self-produced food fall within the acceptable level of food consumption than those that purchase food. Households that purchased food comprised those who lost land to urban sprawl and abandoned agriculture. The results imply that the role of urban and peri-urban food and land markets must be projected in urban sprawl discourse to broaden the spectrum in the Global South.
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DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2023.2224023
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