The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has urged farmers across the country to actively support the national fight against illegal mining, warning that the practice is fast eroding Ghana’s agricultural potential and threatening food security.
Nana Ameyaw Manu, a former Vice Chairman of PFAG, said the activities of illegal miners, popularly known as Galamsey, have destroyed vast farmlands and water bodies, making farming increasingly difficult and unprofitable.
He said the country risked facing a severe food crisis if urgent steps were not taken to control galamsey operations, particularly in food-growing regions.
“If illegal mining is not stopped, it will put the nation’s food security under siege. The present situation is already reducing crop yields and slowing productivity,” he cautioned.
According to him, PFAG’s recent assessments show that farmlands in several communities have been contaminated or rendered infertile due to galamsey, affecting the production of major staples and cash crops such as maize, plantain, and cocoa.
“Our study has shown that food crops and cocoa are not doing well in most communities devastated by illegal mining,” Nana Ameyaw said.
He called on farmers to report any suspected mining or sand-winning activities in their areas to security agencies and local authorities.
“Farmers must become part of the solution by protecting their farmlands and reporting illegal operations before they escalate,” he added.
Nana Ameyaw also expressed concern that some young farmers had abandoned agriculture to engage in illegal mining for quick income, a trend he said undermines long-term national development.
“We are losing the next generation of farmers to galamsey because they see mining as more profitable in the short term. But this is a dangerous path that will cost us our food sovereignty,” he warned.
Beyond mining, he noted that illegal logging was compounding the crisis by stripping the country’s forest reserves and degrading the environment.
He therefore urged farmers to help by reporting illegal chainsaw operators to the Forestry Commission and law enforcement agencies.
In a separate interview, Madam Rebecca Nana Serwaa Twumwaa, a vegetable and economic crop farmer, lamented that pollution of rivers and streams by illegal miners has made irrigation increasingly difficult, especially for smallholder farmers.
“The contamination of our water sources has made vegetable farming expensive and risky. Many of us struggle to find clean water for irrigation,” she said.
She called on government and district assemblies to intensify monitoring of river bodies and enforce stricter sanctions against illegal miners to protect agriculture, which remains a major employer in rural Ghana.
The PFAG reiterated that safeguarding the environment and agricultural lands is essential to sustaining the nation’s food supply, boosting rural livelihoods, and maintaining Ghana’s economic resilience.
