Galamsey has Destroyed 1.2m Hectares of Farmland, Displacing Over 500,000 Farmers – PFAG
Acting Executive Director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Bismark Owusu Nortey, has revealed that illegal small-scale mining, popularly known as galamsey, has devastated an estimated 1.2 million hectares of farmlands across the country, directly impacting the livelihoods of over 500,000 farmers and their dependents.
According to him, the destruction of farmlands and the pollution of water bodies have significantly reduced farmers’ productivity, with previously all-season farmers now restricted to seasonal cultivation.
“A report that we’ve worked on shows that close to 1.2 million hectares of farmlands have already been destroyed due to galamsey. Behind these farmlands are over 500,000 individual farmers and their dependents who have been denied the opportunity to use farming as an economic tool to improve their livelihoods,” he stated.
Speaking during the NorvanReports, Economic Governance Platform (EGP) and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) X Space discussion on the theme, ‘Farming at the Crossroads: How Galamsey Threatens Ghana’s Farmlands and Food Security’, Mr Nortey lamented that irrigation systems in galamsey-prone areas have been heavily polluted, forcing farmers to scale down production.
He cited examples from rice-producing areas such as Shama and Kou, where farmers who previously harvested rice two to three times annually can now only produce once a year due to the contamination of water resources.
“The soils have also been polluted to the extent that farmers are unsure of what and when to cultivate, as evidence shows the contamination of soils and its impact on food security,” he added.
Beyond reduced productivity, Mr Nortey noted that illegal mining activities have increased the cost of production, with farmers struggling to find labourers as most young men prefer mining, which offers daily earnings of between GHS 2,000 and GHS 3,000 compared to farm labour wages of GHS 15–20 per hour.
This situation, he said, has compounded the frustrations of farmers who face a “production crisis” from illegal mining and, simultaneously, marketing constraints when they manage to secure yields.
The PFAG Acting Executive Director further warned that the regions most affected by galamsey – Ashanti, Eastern, Central, Western, and Western North – are historically Ghana’s major food-producing areas. These regions contribute significantly to the production of staples such as rice, cassava, yam, cocoyam, and plantain.
“If we do not take drastic action and continue to pay lip service to what is going on, then I’m afraid we might get to a point where we can no longer rely on these regions to produce the food that we want. And we all know the implications of that,” he cautioned.
He also expressed concern about waning youth interest in farming, stressing that many young people are increasingly drawn to illegal mining due to the lack of incentives in agriculture. High costs of production, limited mechanisation centres, marketing challenges, and restricted access to land and credit, he said, make farming unattractive compared to the lucrative but destructive mining sector.
“The situation is largely economic because young people are thinking about survival. If we want to incentivise them to go into farming, then we need to put in the right mechanisms to encourage agriculture while making illegal mining very tedious and unattractive to undertake,” Mr Nortey advised.
Failure to address the menace of galamsey and incentivise youth participation in agriculture, he warned, would accelerate the decline of Ghana’s farming sector and further threaten national food security.
