Wa, Sept. 3, GNA - Dr. Ben Kumbuor, NDC Member of Parliament for Lawra/Nandom, has expressed fears of possible food shortages in the coming year in most parts of the Upper West region, in view of the obvious signs of poor yields of most maize, millet and sorghum farms in the region.

He has therefore, appealed to the authorities to start making contingency plans to provide for any shortages in the coming year. Dr Kumbuor made this call in a statement to the press at Wa, after making a two-week visit to a number of communities in his constituency. His visit took him to communities including, Babile, Birifo, Puffien, Kokoligu, Eremon and Dowine area councils.

He said tour the tour, " I found that most staple food crops such as maize, sorghum and millet are not doing well."

Dr. Kumbuor said he also realized high death rates among the people in the villages, which he thought could be partly due to malnutrition, adding that some of the villages recorded as much as seven deaths in one week.

He said, at Lawra, he also presented an assortment of medical equipment worth 120 million cedis, which he solicited from the charity division of the Church of Latter Day Saints to the district health directorate for distribution to the Nandom hospital and eight other health centres in the district.

He added that: "an amount of one billion cedis has also been procured from the Getfund to assist in the rehabilitation of the Gegenkpe Primary School, one of the oldest schools in the district, which had not seen renovation since its construction."