A new book published in May 2012 analyses the tomato market in the Upper East region of Ghana. The book describes how the Ghanaian tomato market is organised and how it is influenced by international political decisions.

The book Marketing and Market Queens – A study of tomato farmers in the Upper East Region of Ghana was published in May 2012 in the series ZEF Development Studies of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) of the University of Bonn.

The book connects policies and domestic markets in a holistic account, showing the outcomes of trade policies at global, regional and domestic levels on small-scale tomato farmers in Ghana. It describes the complexities in what appears to be an open market but which is highly regulated by powerful tomato queen mothers.

In Ghana, the distribution of agricultural food commodities remains the major domain of women. These women traders belong to associations linked to the commodity they trade in. In this regard traders in traditional food crops such as yam, cassava or tomatoes all belong to associations. Traders who sell peppers, garden eggs, okra are grouped under the tomato traders association. The general leader of the association is known as ‘Ohemaa’ which means a queen mother.

What motivates farmers to continue production despite firm competition from neighbouring Burkina Faso and high imports from EU flooding local markets is what the book hopes to answer. In employing a multidimensional, methodological approach it focuses on economic policies but follows the social and cultural trajectories within a blend of literature on risks, power and the moral market.

Empirically, both quantitative and qualitative data show that the exchange processes in a localised sector like the tomato market are not only based on pure economic principles but show some level of social dimensions. In any social setting there are political, economic and cultural concerns that affect the lives of the people. However, discourses on how policies shape economies and other sectors dwell only on formal regulations, that is, those encoded by state institutions. In so doing, the emerging informal dimensions that affect people's attitudes and behaviours are neglected. The book captures all the dynamics in a well-knitted conclusion with recommendations.

Author: Martha A. Awo/ile