Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, on Wednesday, appealed to the Canadian Government to extend its budgetary support programme on food security in the three Northern Regions. He made the appeal, when Mrs Trudy Kernighan, Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, paid a courtesy call on him in Accra. The 12 million Canadian Dollars Community-Driven Initiatives for Food Security, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), aims to contribute to sustainable increase in food security in the Northern part of Ghana. It has for the past five years been supporting development and implementation of food security initiatives in 10 districts in the eastern corridor of the Northern Region and is expected to end in March this year. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the laudable achievements and successes that the programme had chalked in the last five years necessitated its continuation and extension into other areas. He lauded the contribution of Canada to deepening Ghana's decentralisation process, especially in fiscal decentralisation and expressed the hope that both countries would continue to collaborate to enhance their development. Mrs Kernighan expressed the willingness of both countries to collaborate in moving the decentralisation process forward. CIDA has also been funding the District Development Facility which aims to support the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to implement their annual action plans as well as the District Wide Assistance Project. Source: GNA