|
|
|
On March 20 ActionAid Ghana by publication in the Daily Graphic sought to create the impression that farmers in the biofuel project area on the Yendi road of the northern Region had lost their farm lands.
I pointed out in my rejoinder [Daily Graphic 10 June] that only 10% of those lands were in use prior to the project taking off. I am therefore amazed that ActionAid, in its reply [Daily Graphic 6 July] now claims that the farmers who had lost their lands were in Tamale, 46 km from the site!
Is Action Aid Ghana (AAG) concerned about the plight of farmers in the community or about so-called farmers based in Tamale?
Currently, farmers in the communities around the project area are using 200 ha of land cleared by the plantation to cultivate food crops.
This is however not to say that no one ever loses from such projects. The losses must be weighed against the potential gains. If a project is thought to be in the interest of the larger community, the normal practice is that the affected persons are relocated to allow the project to go on.
The people in the project area are farmers - not idlers.
AAG according to the article under reference [Daily Graphic 6 July] claims that the people were not idle because the Tamale maize farmers offered them temporary jobs.
This exposes a shocking level of ignorance about the living conditions of the people Action Aid Ghana claims to be fighting for. In the project area, a hunger period of between 3 and 5 months is experienced in the dry season when there are no farming activities.
By this time there is no work to do and families would have exhausted their food supplies. It is often during this time that the youth travel down to the south to do menial jobs.
In 2008 this trend was reversed by the project because of the availability of paid employment.
They were able to buy food and seeds for the next farming season. Some even engaged tractor services and could afford to hire labour thereby increasing farm size and potentially, yields.
Amazingly AAG prefers temporary jobs on maize farm that last only a few months of the rainy season. These temporary jobs do not pay SSNIT and Taxes on behalf of workers?
How many people were employed over this period when most people would be busy on their own farms? Are these temporary jobs available in the dry season too?
Once again I must ask, is salaried work the preserve of a few people?
The long and short of the matter is this: Action Aid commissioned a study to be undertaken around the issues of biofuels and the land and food security issues raised thereby.
The study was however flawed in its methodology as the researchers neglected to speak to communities themselves and the biofuel companies.
How can you speak authoritatively on a subject if you refuse to talk to stakeholders in that field?
It is for this reason that Action Aid now asks when the EIA Assessment was done and if it was shared with the wider public. Action Aid, should you not have enquired of BioFuel Africa Ltd and the other biofuel companies to get these answers?
AAG further claims that my article created an erroneous impression that jobs were created which addressed food security and migration issues.
I want to reiterate that jobs were created and this addressed food security and migration issues.
The plantation provided employment for 365 people (about 30% of them were women) with SSNIT and Taxes paid for them.
Action Aid could not know this because its researchers chose NOT to speak to the people in the communities directly.
The absence of paid employment, the chronic poverty and lack of viable options has been the major cause of the annual spate of migration of young people from the project area to the south in search of jobs. Many become head porters - popularly known as 'kayayoo'.
I say again as I said in my first article 'As a result of the Kpachaa plantation, I met young ladies who had migrated to the south to work as 'kayayei', who had returned home because they had heard from family members that there was now a source of employment close to home. I met them.
I spoke to them.' Action Aid, you did neither.
Unfortunately, only 67 people are currently employed on the project.
Most of the people had to be laid-off due to a financial downturn that the company is experiencing.
This change in its fortunes is because most of its major investors have pulled out of the project, due to misleading information put out by Action Aid Ghana.
Investors, like sheep, do not drink in stormy waters! Action Aids propaganda has gone on for about a year with the effect that investors have drawn back.
We can infer from ActionAid Ghana's article [Daily Graphic 6 July] that they have set out to protect the interest of persons not living around the project area in Tamale and perhaps their own interest.
Not that of the poor farmers in the project area. It is regrettable that in the process, the livelihood of the people in the communities has been jeopardized.
The writer of the article should read Action Aids 20 March article. They spoke about slave labour.
The last paragraph of the ActionAid Ghana article would have been funny had it not been so indescribably sad. I quote:
"ActionAid Ghana, as a development organization, is not against investors. We are not fighting investment in jatropha or biofuel production. However, in our advocacy work, we would always point out any activity, being undertaken by persons and or groups of persons, which has the potential to negatively affect poor and excluded people's right to food. AAG and its collaborators have always shown our readiness and preparedness to discuss these issues dispassionately for the benefit of the poor and marginalized in Ghana."
ActionAid Ghana, let's set the record straight. By your negative propaganda, you have succeeded in causing the loss of 300 jobs.
This, in an area where industrial investment does not exist to any appreciable degree. Salaried employment is scarce from many and you know it.
You have abused the faith that many, including myself, had in you.
You have taken a stand against biofuels and have taken a stand against investors in this field.
That you cannot deny. The effects are clear for all to see.
You HAVE NOT discussed issues dispassionately. Above all, you have succeeded in making few less, not more available.
I think you have achieved more than what you set out to do. And my goodness, the price has been so high.
Dr. Joy Bruce
Rural Consult Ltd.
Tamale
Phone: 0274 223344 inside Ghana and +233 274 223344 for callers outside Ghana.
Email: dr.joybruce@gmail.com
| |
|
