Mining and Its Implications on Food Security in Amansie West and South Districts, Ghana.

Abstract

Context and background: In mining communities in the developing world, agricultural livelihoods are gradually being lost in terms of labour and farmlands. The operations of the miners coincide with other land use activities and cause conflicts between people who also have an interest in the land. Goal and Objectives: This research aims to assess land use changes caused by surface mining in Amansie West and South Districts and the effects it has on food security. Methodology: The integration of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques were used to create a land use land cover classification scheme to analyse the trend, rate and extent of land use land cover changes. A modified random sampling technique was employed for data collection. Statistical analysis revealed that there has been a decrease in vegetation lands and forest reserves contrary to the mass increase in mining areas and a considerable increase in settlement/bare lands. Results: A statistical analysis revealed that there has been a decrease in vegetation lands by 11.67% and forest reserves also reduced by 5.95% from 2007 to 2020. Contrary to that, mining areas and settlement/bare land increased by 12.12% and 5.51% respectively. The research revealed that the people living in the mining communities encounter several difficulties such as water pollution and land degradation caused by the mining activities. Although productivity has not necessarily been affected, there are still concerns about food security in terms of utility and accessibility.

Keywords

• Food security
• Land use land cover changes
• Landsat