To the right of a large tree, a field planted with tobacco is seen from the roadside. After clear-cutting, the rectangular field was tractor-plowed and planted with seedlings provided by the Pioneer Tobacco Company. Trees left standing mark the edges of the field. Visible in foreground is scarring created by construction of a new grated road. Near Nyrie, June, 1994.
A cashew tree (Anacardium sp.) grows in an agricultural field planted (foreground) with calabash (Lagenaria siceraria). Sampson Attah stands near the tree. Calabash has long been grown as a cash crop for local and regional sale in the Banda area. When cashew trees were first planted in the area from the mid-1990s, they were grown singly or in small numbers. A growing shift to cashew farming in the area during the early 2000s was accompanied by the planting of large stands of cashew trees referred to locally as "plantations." Banda area, June, 1995.
The soil of a agricultural mound has been dug away to expose a yam (Dioscorea sp.) tuber. The yam vine spreads across the mound and beyond at the top of the photo, its roots surrounding the tuber. A yellow pencil is placed to the left of the yam to provide scale. Banda area, June, 1982.
Yam mounds have been raised in a partially cleared agricultural field. Small trees have been left to supply support for climbing vines and to aid fallowing after the field has been used for several years. The hard work of forming the mounds using short-handled hoes takes place early in the dry season, after which mounds are planted with yam cuttings during the months of January-February. The vines grow throughout the rainy months of April to August, forming new tubers which are ready for harvesting in late August-September. Banda area, Dec. 1982.
A roadside agricultural field is planted with cassava (Manihot esculenta). The palmate leaves of the mature plants are visible growing among trees that were left standing when the intercropped field was first prepared. Regular weeding is needed to control spear grass, which can be seen growing at the edge of the field. Cassava is grown for its tubers, which can be harvested over a long period and store well when processed and dried. Its leaves are valued as an ingredient in soups. Planted early in the rainy season (April-May) the tubers mature in 6-18 months, depending on variety. Cassava tolerates poorer soils than yams (Dioscorea sp.), which are a preferred food in the area. Therefore, cassava it is grown in intercropped fields after yams are grown in the first year or two and before fields are left to fallow. Roadside near Nyire, August, 1994.
Ma Mnama had a reputation as a successful farmer in the Banda area. Here she uses a short-handled hoe (kagbaan in Nafaanra; pl. kagbɛɛn) to cultivate her intercropped field, located to the east of Banda-Ahenkro, 1982. A 2018 interview with daughter Lelԑԑ Yahͻͻ provides background on Ma Mnama's history as a farmer. A link to the interview is available, below.
