ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the livelihood strategies of young people living in three villages near the town of Bole in the Northern Region of Ghana, looking at their farming and fishing activities, nonfarm businesses in the village, and the role of migration in business establishment. The fieldwork on which the chapter is based was conducted in Bole District, one of 20 districts in the Northern Region, the capital of which is the town of Bole. Some young people succeed in investing their capital in new businesses in their villages, and many simultaneously engage in a number of activities, either combining farming with a nonfarm business or adding a new business to an existing one. Young people in northern Ghana are growing up in a very different environment from their southern counterparts. While the south is the locus of the major cities, industries, and most important cash crops, the north is primarily rural with an agricultural base, much of it subsistence.
