A civil society group in Ghana has accused gold mining companies of killing agriculture, displacing local populations and damaging the environment, saying that life for mining communities is 'hell'.

'For the mining communities, life with mining is hell,' WACAM said in a report issued as the Ghana Chamber of Mines celebrates 80 years of mining with the slogan 'Life without mining is impossible'.

The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) said Ghana is sacrificing its enormous agricultural potential to mining in a time of soaring global food prices.

'Multinational mining companies are mining in Western Region, Eastern (Region), Ashanti and in the Brong Ahafo region and these are the areas that constitute the food Basketball of the country,' the report, sent to AFP Wednesday, said.

It said multinationals such as AngloGold Ashanti, Golden Star Resources, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Goldfields Ghana Limited and Chirano Gold Mines 'hold large tracts of agricultural lands as mining concessions'.

WACAM said that mining has caused many areas that used to be major food production areas to become areas of net food deficit.

The group also said gold mining has displaced tens of thousands of landlords, along with their labourers and dependents.

The group blamed what it said was the determination of successive Ghanaian administrations to attract foreign direct investment into the extractive sector at all costs.

'In the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift .. from dependence on agriculture to mining and we have exhibited a strong desire and committment to promote the mining sector above all sectors through the provision of generous incentives to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) ..,' WACAM said.

The group said the extractive sector accounts for around 70 percent of all FDI inflows to Ghana.

The report also accused the multinationals of having caused environmental degradation by dumping waste.

It criticised two multinationals -- Newmont and Chirano Gold -- for intending to mine in forest reserves.

WACAM also said that cyanide spillages have deprived at least two villages of livelihoods from activities such as fishing, and that abandoned pits have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, thus increasing the incidence of malaria in mining communities.

'The nation should consider the long-term consequences of promoting surface mining, which is inherently unsustainable against agriculture, which is sustainable', the report concluded.

WACAM is an environmental and human rights organisation working in about 60 communities affected by the operations of multinational gold-mining companies.