The Bono Region, long celebrated as one of Ghana’s most productive food baskets, is facing devastation as illegal mining, locally known as galamsey, eats away at its farmlands and water bodies. What was once a cradle of food security is now being hollowed out, field by field, leaving behind gaping craters where cassava, maize, and plantain once thrived.
From Tain to Banda, Wenchi to Dormaa, communities that have sustained households and markets across Ghana are witnessing a rapid transformation of farmland into lifeless pits. Farmers say the destruction is unprecedented and poses a direct threat to national food security.
In Dormaa’s Masu and Yawbofokrom communities, more than 120 acres of farmland have been ravaged. For farmers like Emmanuel Kyeremeh, the impact is devastating.
“I have lost about 50,000 cedis,” he lamented. “My family depends on this land, but galamsey has taken it all. If this continues, in five years Ghana will face food shortage and hunger.”
Another farmer, Kwasi Yeboah, pointed to barren pits where his cassava once grew. “They have destroyed everything. We are left with nothing,” he said.
Dormaa, once renowned for producing plantain, garden eggs, tomatoes, okro, and cashew, is losing its farmland at an alarming rate. Even after chiefs signed a 2024 memorandum banning galamsey, the miners returned barely a year later.
The Bono Region’s fertile soils have long supplied staple foods across Ghana—from plantain for Accra markets to maize for northern feed mills. But agricultural experts warn that continued mining could spark severe shortages, driving up prices and leaving millions vulnerable to hunger.
Illegal mining hotspots have been identified in Dormaa Akwamu, Kobedi, Akontanim, Kyeremasu, Benkasa, Amponsahkrom, Yawbofokrom, Masu, and parts of Banda and Tain.
The human toll is also growing. In August 2025, a 16-year-old boy, Issahaku Ansu, was shot and killed at a galamsey site in Dormaa, deepening community fears.
Water security is under threat as well. Illegal mining along the River Tain endangers a €30 million Belgian-funded water project intended to serve Wenchi and surrounding towns. In Banda, contamination risks loom over the Bui Dam, one of Ghana’s key energy assets.
The fight and the frustrations
Some traditional and local authorities have attempted to fight back. The Omanhene of Wenchi, Osagyefo Ampem Anye Amoampong Tabrako III, declared war on galamsey, leading to machine seizures and site raids. The Wenchi Municipal Security Council (MUSEC) has also mounted operations, burning equipment. However, the lack of arrests has raised doubts about the seriousness of the fight.
Civil society groups, including the Coalition Against Illegal Mining and the Catholic Bishops Conference, have called for a state of emergency. But President John Dramani Mahama dismissed such calls, saying: “A state of emergency is not yet necessary in the galamsey fight.”
For farmers like Kyeremeh and Yeboah, the President’s stance is disheartening. Their farmlands are gone, their rivers polluted, and their livelihoods crumbling.
“Must Ghana wait until food becomes scarce and we are forced to import what we used to grow?” one farmer asked at a community meeting in Dormaa.