The above narrative gives us a glimpse into the socio-political life of the Dagbon people, which is embedded in their origin. These historical recollections are echoed by current writers like Imam and Mahama who painted the mas warriors, skilled hunters, and great agriculturalist. They are organised in centralised states with a patriarchal system of inheritance, where women are not included in the decision making of the state. The agricultural activities of the Dagomba people from the pre-colonial era to present date were extracted from secondary sources, archival data and oral history collected by anthropologists and historians who first visited these people.Even though oral history is considered problematic due to its sources and credence,it gives a clear picture of the past socio-political relationship of people. Also, primary data was collected from farmers, government officials,non-governmental organisations and traditional rulers through 101 key informantinte rviews, 35 focus group discussions, informal discussions and participant observations on fields especially from September 2013 to March 2015.
The questions addressed in these interviews and discussions focused on; pre-colonial and existing agricultural policies,grow table hydroponic evolving agricultural practices with a focus on urban vegetable farming and social norms which condition farm activities and practices.The key informant interviews purposively targeted key stakeholders who are knowledgeable about the subject of discussion and have experiences from faming during the pre to post colonial era. The information from key informant interviews was triangulated with information from focus group discussions disaggregated by gender and occupation. These qualitative methods provided us within depth knowledge of what activities took place, how and why it did. Combined with achival data and secondary literature we had a more holistic picture of the agricultural system in Northern Ghana and why it has not changed much. The paper is part of my doctoral work. The aim of the study was clearly explained to all respondents.Respondents were informed of their right to stop the interview or completely refuse to participate in the research. Few respondents opted out during this study. The agricultural system in the Northern region has evolved with resultant changes in the production, distribution and consumption patterns of the people. The different agricultural policies have shaped and are still shaping farmers practice within their socio-economic and political environment.
Changes in the agricultural activities of the Dagomba people will be considered at different time scales from pre-colonial times to date in relation to changing agricultural policies and the social reality of the people. In pre-colonial times, agricultural activities of the Dagomba’s were captured by historians and anthropologist through tales and participant observation. Cardinall and Tamakloe argued that, even though most traditional tales and history in Africa are regarded as superstition, they are believed to be accurate by the people who live it daily and to whom it is considered perfectly natural. This assertion he puts in opposition to tales in European peasantry societies which are half believed and not assumed to be natural occurrences. Talton also emphasized the importance of historical recollections in defining the customs and traditions of people, their socio-political structure and how they construct their identity and access to and control over different resources. Through tales of human interactions with the gods, we see a clear picture of the type of agricultural system that existed before colonialism influenced by religion and culture and constructed around the socio-economic and political environment; the people lived in. An example is the tale of Edubiaku the wise child, which describe show man received seeds as a gift from the gods to plant far afield and later around the living abode.Blench and Dendo corroborated the idea of farming far away from the living quarters, or the compound when he talks about the practice of bush farming in the Northern parts of Ghana. He explains that many fields were cultivated far from the living abode—about 4 to 10 km. From the different tales written in Cardinall and Tamakloe , we deciphered that due to the destruction of crops far from the compound by animals, the guard of the gods advised humans to sow their seeds close to their compounds.