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Mr Boniface Gambila, Member of Parliament for Nabdam, has appealed to the Forestry Commission, to release the forest belt to his constituents for farming activities. He said long ago, the Sakote-Nangodi forest belt was the only land used for farming, which is patronized by the people of Bawku, Zebila and some others from Nabdam. �The population of Nabdam is now grown, and there are no more farm lands in the area, except the forest reserves.� Mr Gambila who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the population has caught up with the area demarcated for farming, making farmers determined to move to farm in the forest areas. Mr Gambila said it is necessary for authorities of the Forestry Commission to dialogue with the Chiefs and Tindanas of Nabdam, to develop an agreed plan for managing farming activities in the forest area. He said the forest areas should be released to the farmers for farming activities under supervision, to protect the reserves in order to curtail annual food shortages in the area. Mr Gambila noted that the poor soil of Nabdam does not allow for the production of enough food, since most of the farmers are into subsistence farming only to feed their families. Mr Gambila also appealed to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, to issue licenses to the youth of Nabdam, who are into small-scale mining. Nabdam has a size of 353 square kilometres with farming dependency ratio of 93.3 percent., while its natives are 74.4 per cent economically unemployed.