By Patrick Biddah
The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has sounded the alarm on the looming food shortage expected to hit the country.
This impending shortage, according to GAWU, is arising out of the level of devastation of farmlands due to the activities of illegal mining which is popularly called, “ galamsey “.
In a statement issued by GAWU and signed by its General Secretary, Mr Andy Tagoe, food security, has become one of the scariest looming pandemics in Ghana due to the menace.
Although, many challenges are being faced by the country due to galamsey, Mr Tagoe, revealed that agriculture is the most affected sector plaguing the nation with little to no efforts by the state apparatus to curb the situation.
“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 citizenry and our unborn children,” he noted.
According to a Research Gate report,over seven thousand four hundred and seventy (7,470) cluster categories of Galamsey in the country, has led to the destruction of farm lands, water bodies exposing several informal workers to job and income insecurities across the country.
Ghana has, therefore lost about 2.5 million hectares of forest reserve to illegal and uncontrolled mining which is a huge threat to biodiversity.
In the view of the GAWU General Secretary, however, Galamsey remains an extremely dangerous and treacherous type of illegal mining activity which has forced several farmers to give up their farm lands either through coercive means or out of frustration of no hope in the 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”, he added.
He further explained that the vegetation is stripped away along with the topsoil, leading to crop loss and unfavourable microclimatic conditions for cocoa cultivation.
This degradation of natural resources, the statement pointed out, undermines the potential for sustainable economic growth, particularly in sectors dependent on a healthy environment, such as agriculture and forestry.
The statement indicated that cocoa or oil palm, which are the most common cash crop cultivated, are also threatened
Currently, over 100000 acres of cocoa farms, have been destroyed and over 30000 acres of oil palm plantations have been destroyed culminating in the
The situation is compounded by the remaining few farmers who are sacrificing to produce food to feed the country and for export and have to deal with challenges related to irrigation as water bodies being polluted and unsafe when exposed to crops.
Mr Tagoe also made reference to the several health and safety hazards and risks to Ghanaian citizens due galamsey as farms are exposed to all the chemicals used in polluting water bodies.
“These threats may affect women’s fertility and their unborn children, as well as babies for lactating mothers”, he stressed.
In view of the aforementioned, the GAWU General Secretary, declared that it has as a matter of urgency, joined Organized Labour and that of other Civil Society Organizations, to call on the government to declare a state of emergency to salvage the whole country from the galamsey menace and demand immediate action from government .
