A foreign-owned mining company is reported to have taken over 100 hectares of rehabilitated cocoa farms at Nkawie in the Ashanti region, allegedly without authorisation, denying the farmers access to their farmlands.
According to TV3 News, the company, MIGOP Mining Limited, is conducting mining exploration and development activities in five cocoa communities in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality.
Following an epidemic of Cocoa Swollen Shot Virus Disease in the communities, the Ghana Cocoa Board intervened and the farms are part of the newly rehabilitated cocoa fields.
Professor Michael Kwarteng, head of COCOBOD’s anti-illegal mining units, bemoans the effects and dangers posed by the mining company’s operations on the local communities’ ability to produce cocoa.
“Yesterday, I received a call from the executive director of the cocoa health and extension division that there is this mining company, MIGOP Mining Limited.
“They’ve come to this our cocoa district. To them, they’ve been given license to do prospecting and they’ve destroyed a lot of our cocoa farms,” said Mr. Kwarteng.
He added, “Farmers have been preventing them but they are using security personnel to intimidate them and then going ahead with their activities. So when I received this I said no, I can’t sit down for even a day.”
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“Looking at what is happening, the evidence is there. They’ve destroyed some of the cocoa farms. COCOBOD we are not aware of what is going on. I always say whenever you are securing any concession, you have to contact the regulator of that production, being cocoa, or whatever.
“Meanwhile when you go to the minerals commission, the Mining Acts 703 sections 18(1)(2), it tells you that mining companies are supposed to contact bodies that regulate that farm. So they are violating that aspect of their own law. So, mining companies are taking advantage of this and are destroying our farms everywhere,” he stated.
Impact on farmers
Meanwhile, some farmers who spoke to TV3’s Ashanti Regional Correspondent Ibrahim Abubakar decried the negative impact the decision is going to have on their livelihood and the country as a whole.
“The miners gave me cash in exchange for my cocoa farm but I didn’t allow it. We need your help,” a farmer said.
Another farmer remarked, “The miners claimed they have acquired a permit from the government. They will negotiate a price for your cocoa farm behind you,” adding that such an arrangement poses a “great challenge to our children and country.”
Apuoyem, Brahebebome, Brosanko, Ouagadougou, and Nkotonmire are among the cocoa communities that would be impacted by mining operations.
Meanwhile, the monetary value of cocoa produced by these communities, according to the Ghana COCOBOD is over GH¢316, 000.F
