Joseph Boahen Aidoo, COCOBOD boss
GHANA COCOA Board (COCOBOD), in a bid to join government’s crackdown on illegal mining on cocoa farms, has proposed an amount of GH¢3,630,000 as compensation to cocoa farmers who have lost their lands to illegal miners.
This proposal was presented by COCOBOD to stakeholders at the National Consultative Dialogue on Small Scale Mining organised by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in Accra.
Presenting the policy document on COCOBOD’s position on the fight against illegal mining, the Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control, Dr. Emmanuel Agyemang Dwomoh, disclosed that cocoa generates more than $2.2 billion annually in foreign earnings to Ghana.
He said cocoa was the mainstay of the Ghanaian economy; and therefore the board would not renege on its efforts to sustain the cocoa sector by influencing government policies aimed at deterring illegal miners and their collaborators from persisting in their trade.
Dr. Dwomoh emphasised that mining has had disastrous effects on Ghana’s environment, resulting in crop loss, reduction in farmers’ income, contaminated water bodies and threat to wild life.
He said an amount of $200 million had been invested by COCOBOD for farm rehabilitation, irrigation, fertiliser subsidies, public sensitisation and education to facilitate sustainable production.
“COCOBOD is paying GH¢11,892 per acre of each rehabilitated farm and urges government to safeguard these investments to avoid losing them to illegal mining with its adverse effects on the environment and livelihood of farmers,” he said.
Dr. Dwomoh said that a legislative framework that focuses on processes should be developed, as an approach towards sustainable land and water management system in cocoa growing areas where illegal mining is rife.
“Where mining is inevitable, an amount of GH¢3,630,000 being projected revenue per hectare should be paid as compensation to the farmer whose farm has been destroyed,” he emphasised.
He said there is the need for COCOBOD, Lands and Minerals Commissions to collaborate, streamline and tighten sanctions against illegal miners in cocoa growing regions. “No issuance of licence or lease for mining in cocoa farm lands until public forum is organised in prospected communities,” he stressed.