Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Abdel-Majeed Haroun, at the weekend presented 2,000 bags of maize and 1,000 bags of rice to the Upper East Region as part of measures to ease the area's food crisis triggered by an army worm invasion early this year.

Additional 6,000 bags of cereal are expected in the region by the end of the year. The cereal will be sold at subsidised prices to the people but farmers whose fields were affected during the worm invasion as well as other vulnerable groups will receive the food free of charge.

The food aid is a response action in line with the newly introduced Emergency Social Relief Programme (ESRP) inaugurated recently by President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Dr Haroun urged those involved in the distribution of the items to exercise a great deal of self-discipline and overcome the temptation to divert them.

"Remember; those we call upon to judge our record shall be watching us day and night. Let us show that we too care for our brethren as much as the President cares for us."

Dr Haroun said that, whatever promises President Kufuor makes, there are dynamic, youthful, truthful and dedicated Ministers to ensure that they are fulfilled.

He gave the assurance that the emergency social relief programme would help offset disasters quickly and decisively.

He added that, with the introduction of the homecoming summit, the President's garment and textile as well as cassava initiatives, the country would soon rise from its economic slump.

He said the government's concern was that "in three-and-a-half years our record of care and service to the good people of Ghana would be measurable".

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mahami Salifu, gave the assurance that the foodstuffs would be distributed to those who really need them.

He said it was embarrassing for the region to continue to depend on food aid, adding that it had come to a point where the region would have to look beyond merely doing peasant farming.

He pledged to strategise and strengthen the capacity of farmers to produce more food to feed the people in the region by organising them into co-operatives.