The Chamber of Agribusiness is getting ready to organize a demonstration, citing the uncontrolled destruction of agricultural farmlands by illegal miners as the main reason. According to the Chamber, more than 1.2 million hectares of farmland have already been destroyed. This has raised concerns among investors worried about their agribusiness ventures’ future.
In an interview with Citi Business News, CEO Anthony Morrison expressed frustration, stating that despite repeated complaints, illegal miners continue to ravage the land in their pursuit of resources like gold.
“People’s investments have gone down the drain as a result of activities of illegal mining and galamsey actors. It is a call that we are working on this week. We intend to follow up with a press release and, after that, follow it up with a demonstration among the farmer front and agribusiness front. We are losing quite a lot,” he said.
Anthony Morrison further demanded immediate action from the president to reverse the trend, stressing that “we have lost trust with him [President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] as a result of the fact that he is not protecting the livelihood of over 57% of the rural population that is directly involved in agriculture and we are talking about 17 million people”.
He added that the Chamber will soon launch various activities, including petitioning the Food and Agriculture Organization and other international bodies to pressure the president into taking swift action.
Anthony Morrison also expressed concerns about the potential prohibition of agricultural exports from Ghana if the situation continues unchecked as European countries and other export country destinations put safeguard measures in the importation of products.
He believes action needs to be taken to boost investment in the agricultural sector.
“If there can be an immediate stop to the issues of galamsey because there are a lot of people whose prospective investors are on the ice as a result of galamsey going on in identified zones where they ought to be doing their investment,” Anthony Morrison stated.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
