At the 5th Sustainable Development Conference of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) in Somanya, stakeholders raised alarm over the devastating impact of illegal artisanal mining, popularly known as galamsey, on Ghana’s food production systems.
Delivering a keynote address, Dr. Seth Appiah-Kubi, Country Director of A Rocha Ghana, cautioned that while galamsey provides short-term income for households, it is undermining the nation’s long-term survival.
“In 2020, about 20,000 hectares of cocoa farms had been lost to galamsey, and the figure has since grown,” he revealed. “By the 2023/24 cocoa season, output fell 40 percent below target, with illegal mining, adverse weather, and disease as key drivers.”
He explained that toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic from mining sites seep into soils and rivers, damaging crops, endangering food safety, and inflating water treatment costs. Rivers such as the Pra and Ankobra, once vital for irrigation and household use, have become dangerously polluted.
“Galamsey erodes the very foundations of food production: land, water, labour, and ecological stability,” he warned.
UESD Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eric Nyarko-Sampson, echoed these concerns, stressing that climate change, deforestation, unsustainable land practices, and pollution are compounding the crisis. He noted that in Ghana alone, two million people faced acute food insecurity between June and August 2025, according to FAO data.
“Protecting the environment is not optional; it is the foundation of food security, livelihoods, and national survival,” Prof. Nyarko-Sampson declared. “The time to act is now.”
Other speakers, including Dr. Theodora Akweley Asiamah of UESD, called for strict enforcement of environmental regulations, stronger collaboration among government and civil society, and increased investment in agroecology as pathways to sustainable food systems.
The conference, themed “Environmental Management and Food Security: Threats and Opportunities for Developing Economies”, underscored the urgent need for Ghana to confront environmental destruction head-on if it is to feed its people and sustain its ecosystems.
