GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES SHOWS THE WAY (PAGE 44)

GOLDEN Star Resources, a mining company, has established 487 hectares of oil palm plantations for select farmers in four different communities in its operational areas in the Western Region as part of its corporate social responsibility.
The company is expected to develop 1,000 hectares by the end of this year, planted with 100,000 hybrid oil palm seedlings, and also achieve a cropping rate of 1,000 hectares per annum. About US$1.2 million has already been spent on the project and it is expected that US$1.5 million will be spent on the project at the end of this year.
The communities are Bogoso, Akyempim, Chujah and Maase-Nsuta.
At Bogoso, the company has established a 275-hectare oil palm plantation and allocated four hectares each to 69 smallholder farmers in the community. The project, which was established on a pilot basis two years ago, has been rolled out to the other communities for the benefit of the people.
The chiefs, as well as a host of family heads, have released 14,000 hectares of land for the projects and the company has targeted to develop 10,000 hectares in the years ahead.
When the target is achieved, it is expected that the plantations will support up to 3,000 smallholder farmers in the communities.
To ensure the effective management of the plantations, Golden Star Oil Palm Plantation Limited (GSOPP), a limited liability company, has been formed to see to the day-to-day activities of the farmers.
The company proposes to set up a palm oil processing plant to process the palm fruits into crude palm oil to be sold to big companies such as Unilever Ghana.
Speaking at a ceremony to allocate the Bogoso plantation to the smallholder farmers, the Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Madam Esther Obeng Dapaah, commended the mining company for the establishment of the plantations, noting that the initiative would provide a viable alternative livelihood for the people in the beneficiary communities.
“We are very fortunate for the project, since, after the end of the mines, there will be still employment for the communities,” she said.
Madam Dapaah pointed out that the project had been successful as a result of the good relationship existing between the communities and the mining company, saying, “Without this co-operation, this project would not have been achieved.”
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Golden Star Resources Limited, Mr Tom Mair, said the success of the project was an indication of what could be accomplished when people worked together and put aside all differences and focused on their mutual goals and a spirit of co-operation prevailed.
He stressed that the Golden Star Oil Palm Plantation was the company’s major project in the areas of alternative livelihood and sustainable development.
“When we conceived of a project which will thrive in this community long after mining has come to an end, we concluded that we should think of an agricultural project which will involve as many of the community members as possible,” he explained, adding, “Our first hurdle in the realisation of that aim was the acquisition of land for the project.”
Mr Mair stressed that Golden Star Resources believed in supporting sustainable projects in its catchment communities which would provide an effective and imaginative response to the problem of unemployment, adding, “We noted in the process that unemployment and poverty are the key factors that attract and still attract many of the community members into ‘galamsey’ lifestyles.”
Therefore, he said the company concluded that by providing safer and more permanent jobs, it could gradually wean the youth off the unpleasant and deleterious effects of galamsey.
“We believe that the key to long-term development in any mining community lies in a realistic and convincing system that contributes positively to the community and gives the youth a reason to live for tomorrow in realistic hope,” he stressed.
Mr Mair said the company was looking for a development partner to complement its financial contribution to the project and fully transform the GSOPP into a self-sustaining entity that would continue long after mining had come to an end in the area.
The Executive Director of the GSOPP, Mrs Mary Ankomah Boakye-Boateng, said it was not easy at the beginning of the project, since the people did not appreciate what was ahead of them.
She said the project was unique, since no mining company in Africa had developed oil palm plantations for communities in its catchment area.
According to her, 220 people had been employed to work on the plantations and they were receiving about GH¢100 at the end of each month.
The Chairman of the Smallholders Association, Mr Daniel Owiredu, who highly commended the company for the plantations, said the people initially opposed the establishment of the plantations because they did not realise the benefits they were going to derive from it.