W/R: Cocoa farmers in Prestea-Huni-Valley threaten to sell farm lands to galamseyers
The government has been urged by cocoa farmers in the Prestea-Huni-Valley Municipality of the Western Region to immediately increase the price of cocoa or they will continue to sell their cocoa farms for illegal mining, popularly known as Galamsey.
The farmers, who spoke to Citi FM in Damang, claimed that the current cocoa price is a deterrent to farming and that it has become challenging for them to get sufficient inputs for their farms as a result of the government’s removal of free cocoa farm inputs. The farmers claimed that in order to get free farm inputs, farmers are now dependent on large mining businesses like Gold Fields Ghana.
The expansion of illegal small-scale gold mining operations has caused the Western Region to gradually lose its status as a significant cocoa-producing region.
They said that the low price of cocoa and the government’s switch from providing farmers with cocoa agricultural inputs free of charge to subsidizing them are to blame for the threat of galamsey to the crop.
Gold Fields Ghana Limited’s Sustainability Development Manager, Robert Siaw, estimated that the Foundation’s assistance with cocoa farm inputs this year alone cost $20,000 in total. He told the farmers in Prestea-Huni-Valley that the Foundation would continue to support the cocoa industry because of its significance.
Both galamsey and the low price of cocoa are challenges to the cocoa business, according to Stephen Fiifi Boafo, Head of Public Affairs at COCOBOD, who attended the event to support the Gold Fields Ghana Foundation’s free distribution of cocoa agricultural inputs to the 240 farmers.
