Is deagrarianisation real? A study of livelihood activities in rural northern Ghana

This article examines the livelihoods, portfolios and degree of deagrarianisation of the peasantry]it three villages in northern Ghana. It argues that deagrarianisation should be seen as a process embedded in social change, bearing in mind the reversibility between farm and non-farm livelihood strategies used by households (rcagrarianisation?). A livelihoods research approach involving qualitative household interviews and quantitative surveys ill three villages [it the Kassena-Nankani district constitute primary data for this study. Contrary to the deagrarianisation thesis, this study found that livelihood adaptation, implying both a diversification to new or secondary livelihood activities and changing the form, nature and content of the farm sector, characterised rural livelihoods ill the area. The adaptation process Involves not just a move from the farm to the non-farm sector, but also all intensification of efforts in the farm sector with seasonal diversification into other livelihood activities. The supposedly 'booming non-farm sector' is not entirely real, For reasons of marginalisation and exclusion Of the poor peasantry, resulting from spatial, capital, infrastructural and market limitations.