Farmers sound alarm as Galamsey devastates cocoa farms

Mankrom, Ghana - A staggering 100,000 acres of cocoa farms have been razed to the ground due to rampant illegal mining activities, the Mankrom Cocoa Cooperative Farmers Association revealed in a shocking exposé.

In an exclusive interview with Citi News, the association's president painted a dire picture of the cocoa-growing regions, where vast swaths of farmland are being ravaged in the quest for gold.

"The situation is catastrophic," the president of thr association lamented. "

“They are destroying cocoa farms and lands for this illegal mining and we have not heard anything. In case the government is not aware of the destruction; the cocoa board is telling farmers that they cannot do anything as of now looking at the level of harm and the big men that are into gold mining."

“Now, even the government has changed the name and made it community mining. What is community mining? They are doing exactly what the illegal miners are doing.

“More than 100,000 acres of farmlands have been destroyed due to illegal mining and it has affected us and our production for this year. Because most of the cocoa has been cut down and once they have been cut down, it is making things difficult for us to get the harvest that we are getting.

“So, I believe that going forward the government should declare a state of emergency in the galamsey areas. All galamsey issues should be halted so that after the elections, a commission should be set up to investigate all the illegal mining in the country so that we come up with a blueprint, for the way that we should do mining in Ghana.

“Other than that everybody has to just wake up and search for gold and illegally continue on those businesses, then lives and properties will continue to be affected,” he stated.

The association is urgently calling on the government to intervene and halt the destruction, warning that inaction will have far-reaching consequences for the country's cocoa sector.

Source: Lead News Online