Local Knowledge Flows for Reducing Vulnerability of Rain-fed Agriculture to Environmental Change: Patterns and Drivers of Flow in North-Eastern Ghana

Abstract

Informed by the theory of knowledge flows for the success of the modern firm,   this paper set out to examine the patterns and drivers of local knowledge flows for reducing vulnerability of agriculture to environmental change in the Atankwidi basin, north-eastern Ghana. Drawing on findings from a composite methodological approach to data collection comprising the application of focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and a household survey, the authors make three observations pertaining to the dynamics of local knowledge flows for reducing the vulnerability of subsistence agriculture to environmental change. First, that local knowledge flows or local knowledge diffuses easily within the household and between households that have kinship ties. Secondly, that these knowledge flows are geographically localized at three spatial levels comprising the immediate living environment, the community and the wider local environment. Thirdly, that these patterns of knowledge flows are largely shaped by kinship and to a lesser extent social ties that transcend these three spatial levels of interactions.     

Keywords: local knowledge, flows, agriculture, vulnerability, Ghana