Peasantry and state in Ghana : the example of the Vea irrigation project in the upper region of Ghana

This medium-sized irrigation project was one of the schemes undertaken to bring about structural changes in the colonial export economy and to bridge regional inequalities. The paper aims to demonstrate first why producers of use-values and migrant labourers should be transformed into producers of commodities and how this transformation was achieved. It then tries to explain the reasons for the consequent various changes in the organisation of cash crop production in the project and to analyse the various ways peasants' labour is controlled and exploited. Finally it shows reaction and action of peasants on the loss of control over the means of production, the production process and the terms of exchange

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