Upper West Regional Minister, Amin Amidu Suleimani, has appealed to implementing agencies of the Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project to see the project as a way of addressing multiple environmental challenges confronting the northern savannah region of the country.

He stated that agriculture and food security in the three regions of the north are particularly threatened by the devastating effects of climate change.

The Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project aims at strategically improving planning and development of selected areas of the northern savanah region of Ghana.

The projects will seek to reverse land degradation and enhance agricultural productivity of the selected areas.

Alhaji Suleimani made the statement in a speech read on his behalf by deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Musheibu Mohammed Alfa, at the second meeting of the Ghana sustainable land and water management project local steering committee in Wa.

He observed that the three regions are predominantly rural  and they experience rampant bush fires, unsustainable farming practices and indiscriminate tree felling for charcoal which contribute to land degradation and threat of desertification.

He notes that these factors reduce the productivity of agriculture land, forest and water resources in the area thereby increasing poverty and vulnerability to natural disasters such as floods and drought.

The Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project originally piloted in 8 districts has now been up-scaled to ten districts.

The Upper West Regional Minister also advised beneficiaries of the project and implementing agencies to work extra hard to get the project up-scaled to more districts in the three northern regions.

The project is funded by a grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).