Weiss’s analysis of the locust invasion period in the Northern Territory brings to light aspects of governance between the chiefs and the colonial government. In this example, we see aco-construction of governance by the chiefs and colonist to solve problems of famine and hunger in these provinces, as they come together to deliberate and implement strategies agreed upon by all.Even though relief policies were reached, one of the early difficulties was convincing farmers to start cultivating root crops, a practice they had not indulged in before, especially around the Navrongo area. The farmer’s reason for not adopting this new policy in their words are “our fathers never grew them” according to information in the informal diary written on Navrongo community in 1930 cited in . Here we see the farmers resisting change and governance policies by the colonist using historical recollections of their farming experiences and practices. The unavailability of digging sticks and enough seedlings also posed a challenge to this large scale project. This project to introduce root crop to farmers in the Navrongo area was later aborted. argued that this project was a “colonial propaganda” used to showcase colonial interventions in reducing famine and hunger, where more effective and efficient interventions could be done but were not done.
This “colonial propaganda”led to increased yam cultivation in other areas like Wala, where changes in household food consumption were noticed. Yam consumption increased compared to that of other staples.The women also preferred yams preparation to maize,millet or guinea corn which was more labour intensive. Communal yam farms were developed in the Builsa Native administration and Lawra-Tuma district.The Dagombas who were already known to cultivate yams produced surpluses which were exported to Kumasi and Accra in the South. Here we see how governmental intervention by the colonial government has reshaped the agricultural practice of its subjects the farmers who diversified their crop production.Rice was also given special attention by the colonial government for a while when they thought it could be a future cash crop, hydroponic gutter that will boost the economy of the Northern territories. Rice was chosen because it was not affected by the locust and had potentials of being a cash earner for the local farmers with the intend of reducing poverty and hunger, but also it was meant to provide funds for the colonial government if they operated large farms and exported it back home.This project partially succeeded as farmers started planting rice, but it did not attain the potentials for export. The traditional fast maturing guinea corn seeds from the Southern province known as red guinea corn or Kajie were also introduced in the Northern province, but little is said about the success of this particular project.
Lynn, C. W. an agricultural Superintendent proposed alternatives and diverse crops like pigeon peas , cassava and sesamumto remedy the food shortages caused by locustinvasions.Despite efforts put in place to promote the cultivation of alternative crops,some colonial agricultural experts like Shepard, C. Y, argued that the Northern territories is the most problematic part of the Gold Coast. Plagued by irregular rainfall, poor soils, bush fires, locust invasion and rinder pest epidemics which are detrimental to any agricultural activity. Shepard pointed out that another factor which slowed down agricultural growth was the conservative and somewhat primitive social organisation of the people contributing to food shortages in this region. This positioning of natives in the minds of the colonial administrators greatly differed,as some District Commissioners believed the natives could solve their own socio-economic problems with and without aid from the colonialist. This shift in the mindset of colonialist about the native’s potentials contributed to the introduction of a more modern, technical and scientific approach to the economiccris is in the Northern Territories to improve the well being of the people.Sutton states that sporadic attempts were made at generating a cash economy in the North as “experimental agricultural and livestock schemes were initiated, dropped and revived several times in the course of the colonial period”.