Sand winning activities destroying farmlands at Ankaase

Landowners and farmers at Ankaase in the Afigya-Kwabre municipality are calling on the land commission and Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu to call sand winners and unscrupulous people who have giving lands out for sand winning to order.

The residents at Ankaase's livelihood depend on sustenance farming and also petty trading. Farmers indicated that their farmlands have been given out for sand winning without their knowledge and also without any compensation.

GhanaWeb's correspondent in the Ashanti Region noted that the sand winners have destroyed farmlands being used to cultivate cocoa, palm plantation, cassava, plantain, citrus, and teak to obtain sand for their business without sympathy for the people.

A resident told GhanaWeb that “this government has encouraged farming that is the birthmark of the planting for food and jobs. But certain influential people in this community have taken the laws into their own hands and have ordered people to win sand on our farmland with food crops without any compensation.”

He furthered that all lands in the Ashanti Region belong to the Asantehene hence whenever there is a situation like this, the sub-chief must ensure that it benefits the entire community but there is no development in the community.

Another resident noted that her farmland with palm plantation has been destroyed through sand-winning activities and was not allowed to seek justice hence she is in a state of a dilemma on how to survive since her farmland is being destroyed.

“I own farmland with palm plantation, I woke up to see an excavator destroying the crops for sand winning, I complained and pleaded with them to stop but it was fruitless.

"Even my children went to them to sell an acre to them, they were asked to pay GHc 20,000 for an acre of my land. They were given a deadline up to Monday and after that day, the farmland with 160 palm trees and cocoa were destroyed without any compensation,”

The residents pointed hands at certain names like “Baffour” and “Bempah” as the key conspirators orchestrating sand winning activities in the community without any compensation and hence beseeched them to halt such activities which will cause diseases and long term hunger within the community.

The residents on their knees called for the intervention of Asantehene to caution these influential people within the community who have been giving out farmlands for sand-winning activities, destroying their crops whereas the community has no benefits from the sand-winning activities.

Currently, many farmlands at Ankaase are occupied with gullies and holes full of stagnant water as a result of sand-winning activities in the community.