Research Areas

Agricultural development, agrarian futures, smallholder farming, farmer mobilisation, human-environment interaction, capability approach, geospatial analysis

Current Research

My doctoral research examines the structural contradictions of Ghana’s agricultural development paradigm and how these contradictions shape smallholder farmers’ livelihoods, capabilities, and collective political action. Instead of treating agricultural policy failures as problems of weak implementation or poor targeting, I argue that they are systematically generated by the internal logic of a dominant neoliberal–productivist model of development that prioritises productivity, market integration, and private-sector-led growth. I analyse how agricultural policies that formally commit to inclusion, rural transformation, and sustainability often produce outcomes that undermine these goals. It shows how persistent challenges, including insecure land access, ecological degradation, and limited political voice, are generated by deeper structural tensions within the prevailing development model. I integrate structural policy analysis with empirical evidence from smallholder farmers and farmer organisations to examine how these contradictions are experienced on the ground and how they generate pressures for collective political mobilisation. This doctoral research forms part of the FORMAS-funded project "Mobilizing farmer organisations for sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa”.

Short Biography

Bernard Ekumah is a doctoral student at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS). He holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Environmental Science from University of Cape Coast and Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, both in Ghana. His research lies at the intersection of agrarian political economy, sustainability science, and farmer mobilisation, with a particular focus on smallholder farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining LUCSUS, he worked as a research associate and principal research assistant at the University of Cape Coast, where he led and supported projects on environmental governance, coastal and rural development, GIS and remote sensing, and community-based resource management in Ghana.