The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) is advocating for the government to extend the recent security measures used to prevent farmers from exporting grains to aid in the fight against illegal mining.
According to the Association’s General Secretary, Edward Kareweh, although the group is impressed by the swift measures adopted to ensure food security in the country, the dry spell was not the only threat to agriculture.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on August 27, he explained that it is necessary that the government tackles all problems relating to agriculture including illegal mining known as ‘galamsey’ rather than one aspect.
“We want the government to use the security to do all these things, all these things, and even for some of us. We don’t even want the ban. There are other things that are threatening agricultural production.
“Even though this is an emergency, and we are dealing with it… the emergency, some other illegal activity like galamsey would have caused more harm again to our agricultural system than we have now.
“So whilst we are dealing with a ban and so on, we should also deploy our security agency to deal with galamsey so that we can contain the galamsey and preserve the agricultural infrastructure like water bodies, the forest and then agricultural farms,” he said.
His comments come after Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul said security personnel will be deployed to all border towns nationwide, particularly the northern part of the country to enforce the ban on grain export.
The government through the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Bryan Acheampong on Monday announced a ban on the export of grains, including maize, rice, and soybean, in response to the ongoing dry spell.
Mr Nitiwul has said the personnel will ensure these grains are not smuggled into neighbouring countries to prevent possible food shortages.
Source: myjoyonline