Mining is killing agriculture-WACAM

The Executive Director of Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), Mr.Owusu Koranteng has raised concerns about the activities and operations of some mining companies in the country.

He is concerned about the spate at which mining and surface mining is competing for land with agriculture in Ghana.

His concern comes in the wake of global food and oil price increases.

In an interview with the paper, he said “we realise that surface mining is gradually killing agriculture, but the negative effect of mining on the agricultural sector is completely missing in the discussion about the rising cost of food prices. If major areas of agricultural production are gradually becoming areas of net food deficit as a result of the operations of surface mining companies, then we need to have the foresight to recognize that we are mining ourselves out of existence.” he said.

Commenting on the theme for the 80th Anniversary of the Ghana Chamber of Mines- “Life without mining is impossible”, The Executive Director of WACAM said the theme did not reflect the realities of the destruction of the basic human needs for survival, such as the need for clean air, clean water and good agricultural lands which mining destroys.

“Mining affects the health status of affected communities which reduces the productivity of farmers. For example, abandoned pits become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, thus increasing the incidence of Malaria in mining communities. For the mining communities, life with mining is hell”.

Further, Mr. Owusu-Koranteng noted that mining has a life span whilst agriculture has the property of perpetuity, hence the need for the nation to consider the long-term consequences of promoting surface mining, which is inherently unsustainable against agriculture, which is sustainable.

“The signs have started showing and we ignore it at our own peril”, he warned.

He has thus called for a national debate in formulating pragmatic policies to protect and sustain agricultural lands from being taken over by mining, if government was to make any major inroads in insulating the country against the current upsurge in global food prices.

For the past two decades, he noted that there has been a paradigm shift in Ghana's economic policy from dependence on agriculture to mining, which is exhibited in government's strong desire and commitment to promote the mining sector above all sectors, through the provision of generous incentives to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the extraction sector.

He stated that globally, FDI inflows to the agricultural sector was about 5% whilst in Ghana, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into the extraction sector accounted for about 70% of the total FDI inflows into the economy of Ghana.

“WACAM has been concerned about the fact that large tracts of agricultural lands are currently under mining concessions. As at 1998, government had granted more than two hundred mining leases resulting in Mining Companies holding 30% of the country's land surface area in mining concessions, and even more worrying is the increasing mining activities in important food production areas in Ghana,” he stated.

Mr. Owusu-Koranteng further noted that multinational Mining Companies were currently mining in the Western Region, Eastern, Ashanti and in the Brong Ahafo Region, which constitutes the food basket of the country.