Abstract
Globally, climate-smart agriculture is highly recognized as an approach for sustainable agriculture and food systems. In Africa and other developing countries, climate-smart agriculture is observed to reposition and modify agricultural systems for improved food and nutritional security. Despite the relevance of the approach to sustainable agricultural planning, illegal gold mining in many parts of the society is placing constraints to its implementation and adoption through its contest with agricultural land for space and activities. Illegal gold mining is on the rise due to the lucrativeness of the non-regulated gold rush opportunities with hard consequences on sustainable agriculture and resilience food systems. As a result, this study seeks to investigate illegal gold mining and its environmental implication for climate-smart agriculture in Ghana. The study used a single case study using a mixed-methods approach to research. The study adopted purposive and systematic sampling techniques to select the study communities and respondents, respectively. Questionnaire and interviews were used to gather the primary data from respondents at the household level, as the unit of analysis. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis reveal that known agricultural practices such as terracing, crop rotation, use of domestic waste/manure, and irrigation of crops were affected adversely by activities of illegal mining. The study recommends the need for conscious efforts from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to sustain the ban on illegal mining with intensified monitoring and supervision while a systematic scheme involving relevant stakeholders is developed and implemented to ban illegal mining in Ghana completely. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture needs to develop an approach to support the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers to meet the food demand of their households.
Highlights
Mineral resources have become fundamental for economic development throughout the world
The argument here is its dreadful consequences on sustainable agriculture and food systems due to its detrimental effects on the environment that support climate-smart agriculture
The study further revealed that known agricultural practices such as use of domestic waste and manure, terracing, crop rotation/land fallowing, irrigation of crops, and planting of early resistant crop varieties have been affected by the activities of illegal gold mining in the area with the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices remains extremely difficult
Summary
Mineral resources have become fundamental for economic development throughout the world. In several low- and middle-income countries that are rich in non-fuel mineral resources, mining contributes to national economic development (Addison and Roe, 2018; Ericsson and Löf, 2019). Studies have reported that 10 of the 20 countries where mining contributes most have moved up Agriculture and Land Use one or two steps of the World Bank’s countries classification between 1996 and 2016 (Ericsson and Löf, 2017, 2019; Addison and Roe, 2018). In Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of developing economies where mining operates, whether on a large or small scale has contributed to per capita income through job creation, resulting in improved livelihood status of residents and communities (Apollo et al, 2017; Mwakesi et al, 2020). Notwithstanding the potential contributions of the mining industry to the economies of many developing countries, it has observed to be detrimental to sustainable development due to its hard implication on environmental sustainability and management (Christmann, 2021; Yamarak and Parton, 2021)
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