Protecting the goose that lays the golden egg
For over two centuries, Ghana’s cocoa has been at the very top of commodity trade internationally.
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Our premium beans have commanded higher price on the international market because of the natural processes involved in the value chain of the cocoa harvesting process.
Cocoa is also one of Ghana’s highest earning forex exchange earner and will remain so for the foreseeable future, bearing a more lucrative natural resource find.
We are aware of the government’s determination to have a much bigger say in the value chain with regards to cocoa processing, with a target to process at least 50 per cent of cocoa before export.
In recent times, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have come together in 2019 to introduce the Living Income Differential (LID), which set a standard of $400 per ton and charged on top of world prices was an indication of a firmer resolve to make a claim for better pricing on the international market.
Sadly, events across the globe and our own inertia in dealing with illegal mining of gold threatens the goose that always laid the golden eggs for many decades.
Our criticism or to put it more appropriately, the expose on cocoa sector as per our front page story of last week may have ruffled some feathers and rightly so.
Because as citizens, ours is to seek the national good and not individual praise. We are not in this business to be the official mouth piece of any corporate organisation.
Neither are we in the business to propagate false information as we will not be living our mantra which is “Truth and Accuracy Every Day”.
This country is blessed with so many resources, lately discovering yet another mineral, lithium.
It begs the question why are we so thirsty in the abundance of water. At the onset of this government’s administration, we were and continue to be full of praise for it’s no dependency slogan, which is “Ghana Beyond Aid”.
We doff our hats for the President for this vision.
We believe it is doable to be self-sufficient in many ways as a country. However, it is the same lack of action-oriented leadership that has the potential to draw us back.
We acknowledge the role of the galamsey fight, however, the piecemeal approach may cut it for such sector crying harder for our attention.
The sector is so critical that it should not be allowed to fail because it has been one of the biggest backbone of the economy, raking in millions of foreign exchange for decades and its linkages to rural economy and industry as a whole.
Yet, issues such as the mounting debts and illegal mining threatens its very existence.
It is absolutely not right to saddle this sector with debts on the altar of political expediency with unsustainable projects such as cocoa sector roads.
No matter how good-intentioned of that policy is, it has proven to be an albatross around the neck of the country’s finances and needs to be reviewed.
Thankfully, the current government has reviewed this policy and hopefully we may not have to return to such actions in the future.
These and many more incidents have the potential to bring this very critical sector to its knees if we do not take the critical actions to stop the devastation effect of illegal mining on the cocoa sector.
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The Graphic Business is worried about the Minerals Commission continuous issuance of licenses to mining companies to operate close to cocoa farms.
Recently, groups of farmers in the Asamankese area dragged a mining company to court for what they described as an illegal destruction of their cocoa farms through their activities.
There are several reports of how arable land meant for farming activities within cocoa growing areas has been taken over by the activities of mining.
It is worrying that state institutions are at the forefront of such actions. District and Municipal assemblies mandated to protect our communities have all developed cold feet on delivering on the mandate.
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And this is our mandate, to scream to high heavens to ensure that whoever has ears to listen and take up the mantle does so.
We owe it to our audiences to be citizens and not spectators. We cannot look on unconcerned whiles the goose that lays the golden eggs is being destroyed with reckless abandon, while those trusted with authority to act fail in their duties.