Joseph Boahen Aidoo,COCOBOD CEO
A GROUP of cocoa farmers and opinion leaders, from the Atiwa District of the Eastern Region, have petitioned the Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, to support the communities in the district to fight illegal mining.
The petition said illegal mining was prevalent in the district. The activities of the miners are rapidly destroying the environment and threatening the livelihoods of cocoa farmers.
The petitioners, led by Nana Obeng Akrofi, who represents farmers on the board of COCOBOD, presented their petition at the Cocoa House in Accra. It was received on behalf of the Chief Executive by Fiifi Boafo, manager of the chief executive’s office.
Spokesperson for the petitioners, Seth Oppong, said the illegal mining activities had caused a rise in brutal crimes such as ritual killings and armed robbery, adding that the prevalence of petty thefts and teenage pregnancy in the communities are also very worrying.
Cocoa farmers, he noted, were also losing their farms to miners who often forcefully took over cocoa farms when the farmers resisted their financial inducements.
Mr. Oppong warned that the Atiwa District and the rest of the Eastern Region were at the risk of recording declines in cocoa production, if the illegal miners continued to expand their operations.
He noted this would be a major blow to all the efforts being undertaken by COCOBOD through its Productivity Enhancement Programmes (PEPs) to improve production and the earnings of cocoa farmers.
It would be “a great loss” if the efforts by COCOBOD to rehabilitate cocoa farms and the fertilizer distribution scheme, both sustainable strategies geared towards high productivity and the improvement of the livelihoods of farmers, were destroyed by illegal mining activities, Mr. Oppong said.
It was for that reason, that the farmers had come together to appeal to COCOBOD as an industry regulator, to leverage its regulatory authority and influence on government policies, to bring a lasting solution to illegal mining in the Eastern Region.
Mr. Oppong entreated the board and management of COCOBOD to treat the problem with the urgency it deserved to avert the loss of huge financial and material resources.
Receiving the petition on behalf of the Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Mr Boafo thanked the farmers for their dedicated service to the cocoa sector. He assured them that COCOBOD would treat the petition with all the seriousness it deserved.
A business desk report