This document summarizes the site selection process for Africa RISING projects in Northern Ghana. It involved three main stages: 1) Defining program areas based on farming systems and geography. 2) Selecting districts within these areas to represent a range of biophysical and human factors. 3) Randomly selecting communities within districts while avoiding poor market access and ensuring separation between project and control sites. Several districts in Northern and Upper West regions were selected. Within districts, potential sites were mapped and some eliminated based on field visits. The final sites were said to represent the environmental and socioeconomic diversity of Northern Ghana and provide opportunities for multidisciplinary research.

1. Site Selection for Africa RISING in Northern
Ghana
Christopher Legg (IFPRI)
Asamoah Larbi (IITA)
Africa RISING West Africa Review and
Planning Meeting Tamale, Ghana, 23-
25 October 2012

2. Selection process - stages
1. Define programme areas (“Mega-Sites”) based on
farming systems and geographic region
2. Select smaller administrative areas within
programme areas in order to cover full spectrum of
biophysical and human factors
3. Randomly select action site communities within
selected districts, avoiding areas of poor market
access and ensuring that geographic distribution
permits reasonable separation between action sites
and counterfactual communities

3. Project areas
Three main project areas were defined following discussion between donors and
implementing agencies

4. West Africa project areas
The potential extrapolation zone of the Ghana/Mali project area covers large areas of West
Africa

5. Quick-win sites

6. District selection – stratification criteria
The area is stratified using the following data
1. Agricultural suitability (rainfall and elevation)
2. Population density
3. Livestock density
4. Cropping system
5. Market access

7. District selection – market access
POPULATION DENSITY
RAINFALL
ELEVATION ACCESS
MARKET

8. District stratification

9. Selected districts
•Northern Region. Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kundungu, Yendi
•Upper Western Region. Wa, Nadowli
•Upper Eastern Region. Kassena-Nankana
•Northern. Savelugu, Tolon, Mion
•Upper West. Wa Municipal, Wa West, Nadowli
During field work, it was decided to add one site each in Bongo and
Bawku West districts to cover areas of very dense rural population

10. Selected districts

11. Selection of communities
within districts
Map of all villages in district prepared
from digital data or printed maps
Market access map superimposed to
eliminate inaccessible villages
Potential action sites and controls
selected to ensure geographic
separation but without reference to
any other data on communities
Following field visits to all potential
sites, some are eliminated and others
added

12. Action sites and controls

13. Action sites and controls: Northern region
In Mion
District, due to the
small number of
villages, only four
communities were
selected instead of
the planned five

14. Action sites and controls: Upper East
One community in
each of Bongo and
Bawku West districts
was added in order to
cover densely
populated maize-
growing areas. These
sites have not yet been
field-checked

15. Action sites and controls: Upper West
Potential sites in Upper
Western Region could
not be visited before the
workshop, and thus
must be regarded as
provisional. They will be
field-checked very soon

16. Conclusions
1. Communities selected as action sites cover the full
range of biophysical and human environments in
Northern Ghana.
2. All have maize as a major crop, but livestock, rice,
root-crops and legumes are also important, as are
vegetables.
3. The sites present the opportunity for multi-
disciplinary focussed intervention by groups of
researchers from different organisations to promote
sustainable intensification

17. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net