By: Bruce Misbahu Bulmuo

It is now generally acclaimed that the activities of illegal gold miners in several parts of Ghana’s hinterlands have destroyed our farmlands and are further causing havoc to our environment (land and water sources).

Government, traditional authorities, civil society groups, and some concerned individuals have all expressed profound regret at the destructive force of “galamsey” (illegal mining) to our sources of food and water.

However the biggest problem Ghana is faced with is how to tackle and curb illegal mining, which is widespread and very attractive to the country’s energetic youth, who are promised quick money from illegal prospecting for gold.
The President, John Dramani Mahama, set up a taskforce to move in to put a brake on the alarming increase in illegal mining. Unfortunately, nothing concrete has come out of the work of the taskforce and galamsey is still thriving and Ghana’s environment is in ever greater danger.

If interventions used in the past to address this problem has proved futile, then it is probably time to try other measures to bring to an end to this unfortunate situation.

A greater majority of people engaged in illegal mining are the youth. The country can do well to redirect the energies of these young and active men and women into other productive ventures that would equally guarantee enough income for them to live meaningful lives.

One venture that readily comes to the mind of this writer is agriculture, which has the capacity to employ almost everybody engaged in illegal mining.
A well functioning agriculture industry can guarantee every nation food security, employment opportunities, and income for individuals and the nation as a whole. Alas governments in Ghana and the wider African continent have done little to invest heavily in agriculture.

In 2003, African Heads of States and Governments meeting in Maputo, Mozambique adopted the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). This was to serve as the continent’s blueprint for agriculture and governments were obliged to commit 10% of national budgets to agriculture and also adopt sound agriculture policies.

The multi-million dollar question that begs for an answer is whether African leaders have followed through on the Maputo declaration, a decade down the road. Personally I think not. Agriculture as usual is the most neglected sector in the continent.

In Ghana the authorities have instead looked on as illegal miners and foreign small scale miners are having a field day destroying our environment.
Farmers in this country almost do not receive any support from government, which puts them in a disadvantage as the local small scale farmers have to compete with farmers in the advanced world who are being heavily subsidized.
It is about time small scale farmers from Hamile to Saltpond, from Keta to Ketakrachie, moved onto the street and demonstrate to register their grievances. For a long time they have been taken for granted and neglected by successive governments.

Many of the country’s illegal miners based in the upcountry areas would not waste their precious time going under dangerous pits to bring out gold under laborious and dangerous circumstances if farming is seen as an alternative to what they are doing currently. They sometimes die in their mine pits. So whiles our environment is being destroyed, our youth are also dying.

When farming is made attractive and promises good return on investment we can be sure that our youth would stop destroying the land and our water sources.
One major reason why the presidential taskforce on illegal mining did not achieve much in its mission was because alternative sources of livelihood was not made available to the illegal miners who were put out of “job”.
The taskforce could have sensitized the galamsey operators to accept and practice other professions or vocations and what could be better than farming.
It is a responsibility and moral obligation on our government to quickly take steps to save the environment by adopting sound policies to improve on the agriculture sector to attract our young population.

Our president has on several occasions had cause to complain about the high food import due to our love and taste for exotic foods. But the number one citizen of the land has to understand that solving the problem goes beyound lamentations. Action is what we need now.
The fast rate at which illegal mining is causing harm to the environment calls for quick intervention and our policy makers should never rest on their oars until we find a solution.
Our environment is our future let us protect it through the noble profession of farming.