Deputy Minister-Designate for Food and Agriculture, John Dumelo, has stressed the importance of better cocoa pricing to prevent farmers from leasing their lands to illegal miners.
During his vetting before Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Dumelo highlighted the growing trend of cocoa farmers surrendering their farms to illegal small-scale miners in exchange for large sums of money.
Dumelo emphasized that low cocoa prices in the country are forcing farmers to sell their lands. He argued that competitive pricing would encourage farmers to protect their farmlands rather than seeking financial alternatives through mining deals.
” Giving cocoa farmers the right price will deter them from selling their cocoa farms,” Dumelo stated.
In addition to better pricing, Dumelo called for stricter regulations in the mining sector to prevent destructive activities that negatively impact agriculture.
“The second one is also to restructure or structure the whole mining industry well so that wherever they mine, it wouldn’t be able to affect these cocoa farms. But I think that the main one is about pricing,” he added.