Patience Gbeze
Accra, Sept. 16, GNA – Mr Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe, the General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union of TUC, Ghana (GAWU) said, food security has become one of the scariest looming pandemics in Ghana.
That, he said, has been necessitated by many challenges including the galamsey menace of which agriculture was the most affected sector plaguing the nation with little or no efforts by the state apparatus.
”Galamsey remains one of the major threats to agriculture, exposing the whole nation to challenges of scarcity and expensive food and crops with damning consequences of climate change, health implications for the citizenry and our unborn children,” he said.
In an official statement issued in Accra and copied from the GNA, Mr Tagoe noted there were over seven thousand, four hundred and seventy (7,470) cluster categories of Galamsey in the country.
According to ResearchGate, galamsey has led to the destruction of farmlands and water bodies exposing several informal workers to job and income insecurities across the country.
He said Ghana had lost about 2.5 million hectares of forest reserve to illegal and uncontrolled mining, adding, “This is a huge threat to biodiversity.”
“Galamsey remains an extremely dangerous and treacherous type of illegal mining activity which has forced several farmers to give up their farmlands either through coercive means or out of frustration of no hope in our systems and structures put in place to fight it.
The negative effect of illegal and uncontrolled mining on Cocoa is unprecedented. The environmental impact of galamsey has far-reaching consequences on ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources.”
The vegetation, he said, was stripped away along with the topsoil, leading to crop loss and unfavourable microclimatic conditions for cocoa cultivation.
“This degradation of natural resources undermines the potential for sustainable economic growth, particularly in sectors dependent on a healthy environment, such as agriculture and forestry.
“In every rural household in Ghana, cocoa or oil palm are the most common cash crop cultivated. However, today, Ghana’s place in producing Cocoa and oil palm is disappointing not because of our inability to do so, but because of encroachment and farmers being forced to leave their farms unwillingly to make way for galamsey activities in several cocoa and oil palm growing areas.
“Currently, over 100,000 acres of cocoa farms have been destroyed and over 30,000 acres of oil palm plantations have been destroyed. The few farmers sacrificing to produce food to feed the country and for export must also deal with irrigation challenges as water bodies remain polluted and unsafe if exposed to crops.
Mr Tagoe said the prevalence of illegal mining activities in Ghana had undermined investor and market confidence in the agriculture sector.
That trend, the General Secretary said, had also affected the oil palm and rubber sub sectors resulting in low prices in the international market and Ghana losing out on foreign direct investments which play a crucial role in driving economic growth.
“In addition, Ghana loses about $2.3 billion annually to illegal and uncontrolled mining through gold smuggling and over two billion dollars through loss of cocoa farms.
“Galamsey not only affects our economy through the declining production and activities in the agricultural sector but also poses several health and safety hazards and risks to Ghanaian citizens as our farms are exposed to all the chemicals used in polluting our water bodies,” he added.
Mr Tagoe said the threats might affect women’s fertility and their unborn children as well as babies for lactating mothers.
“As the country clamour to create more jobs for the youth and with the several policy interventions put in place to boost agriculture in Ghana like planting for food and jobs, youth in agriculture among others, we risk making the sector redundant and unattractive if farmers and plantations have to risk land grabbing and forceful removal from their lands.
“Looking on without action from the government means Ghana risking an increase in the unemployment rate, health and safety challenges for citizens and communities, food insecurity and loss of livelihoods for many vulnerable groups and individuals.
He, therefore, called on the government to declare a state of emergency on illegal mining to protect the environment and salvage the few farmlands left.
GNA