The Programmes Officer for the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Charles Nyaaba, has urged government to protect farmlands of peasant farmers.
The farmers indicate that they are being threatened regularly by corporate bodies who want to claims those lands for various purposes.
The association made the call as they commemorated the International Day of Peasants Struggle on Wednesday 27th April, 2016.
The day, originally observed on April 17 each year, highlights the persecution and violence suffered by peasants and farmers around the world.
It was set aside in memory of some 19 Brazilian peasant men and women who were murdered by security forces whilst demonstrating for agrarian reforms in 1993.
Mr Nyaba, who spoke in an interview explained that: “We have seen cases where majority of peasant farmers in Ghana, especially women, lose their lands to corporate institutions by chiefs selling these lands for biofuel and other estate development”.
He lamented that about 50 per cent of lands used for rice farming at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra region has been lost.
He also condemned the killing of farmers who protest against destruction of their lands by Fulani herdsmen in Agogo in the Ashanti Region and the Afram Plains in the Eastern Region.
He called on the leaders of the country to institute policies to regulate the activities of the Fulani nomads to save the fertile lands and produce of farmers.
“We produce about 90 per cent of the produce that is consumed in this country, yet our effort is not rewarded. we are either being prosecuted or murdered,” he added.
Source: classfmonline.com
