ABSTRACT
The Ghana National Climate Change Adaption Strategy has highlighted climate change as a potential trigger for low productivity in agriculture, for reducing both quantity and quality of water, for unsustainable harvesting of natural resources, and for increased incidences of water, air, and food-borne diseases. A number of strategies have emerged that seek, sometimes implicitly, to strengthen the adaptive capacity and resilience of farming communities in northern Ghana by, in one way or the other, increasing agricultural productivity. There is by now a well-developed ‘scientistic’ literature on methods of soil conservation. It is clear that Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) proves to be an effective means of adapting to climatic change and variability in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where low and declining soil fertility is a major cause of low productivity of the predominantly smallholder and rain-fed agricultural systems, and the consequent persistent poverty and food insecurity. However, whilst the scientific community unanimously regards ISFM as a scientifically proven strategy, and invests resources into its development, evaluation and promotion, very little knowledge exist on the gender dimensions of these processes and its potential for conflict. This chapter therefore assesses the unintended impacts of ISFM practices on gender relations and conflict in the interior Savannah of Ghana. It focuses on communities where Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, through the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) has been involved in the implementation of ISFM as a strategy for both increasing crop productivity and as an adaptation to climate change.
