Ghana
Edwin A. Gyasi, William Oduro, Gordana Kranjac-
Berisavljevic', J. Saa Dittoh, and William Asante
On the opposite side of the Atlantic, a little further north than Amazonia, is the landmass of West Africa, an ancient dissected plateau of metamorphosed and sedimentary rocks. It lies south of the Sahara and is a heterogeneous area of 6 million square kilometres, with some 200 million inhabitants and a 3 per cent annual population growth rate. The climate and terrain of the two West African PLEC countries, Ghana and Guinée, are totally dissimilar to those of Amazonia.
GHANA is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots because of its high and endangered biodiversity. In former centuries, forests are said to have covered much of the southern part of the country. Current satellite pictures of southern Ghana show little forest; what remains is a mosaic of remnant woodlands interspersed between cultivated areas. 1 This is the general scenario where PLEC activities take place.
The project works in three main areas in a climatic and vegetation gradient that stretches from the savannas in the relatively arid north to the forest/savanna transition in the more humid south. The ethnic and cultural scene is vivid and varied. The country has a long colonial history, many forms of land tenure, large numbers of migrant peoples, and increasing population pressure. In spite of these differences, the farmers of the West African cluster of PLEC have some of the same basic livelihood problems as the Amazonian farmers. Food security is one of them.
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Agrodiversity:Learning from Farmers across the World.
Contributors: Harold Brookfield - Editor, Helen Parsons - Editor, Muriel Brookfield - Editor.
Publisher: United Nations University Press.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 2003.
Page number: 79.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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