Bangladesh seeks food security joint plan in South Asia

 

 

Bangladesh has expressed hopes that scientists of member-countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) would undertake a collaborative plan on agriculture to ensure food security in the region.

 

The SAARC countries are now facing identical challenges due to adverse impacts of the climate change and ensuring food security should be the main agenda in all strategies in the South Asian countries, Bangladesh Agriculture Minister Motia Chowdhury said.

Motia said there should have clear strategies for projects on food security being taken by the SAARC member countries.

 

She mentioned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's firm commitment of maintaining good relationship with neighbouring countries, adding that the SAARC countries have ample scopes to address multiple challenges in a coordinated manner.

 

The Agriculture Minister described national disasters as a main threat to the region and said any natural calamity hinders food production.

 

Meanwhile, Acting Country Director of ADB Hans Carlsson underscored the need for taking medium and short-term measures for addressing the adverse impacts of climate change as it has bearing on development issues in the region.

 

Carlsson emphasized on arranging more investments to build capacity of SAARC countries for ensuring food security in the region.

 

Meanwhile, SAARC Secretariat director Riaz Hamidullah said that the SAARC countries already witnessed a significant progress in regional connectivity, integration and formulating strategies during the last five years.

 

He also said a process was underway to form the proposed `Food Bank' in the region so that the food security issue could be addressed efficiently.

 

These factors were addressed at the inaugural session of a two-day workshop on "SAARC Initiatives on Regional Food Security" jointly organised by SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Dhaka.

 

The workshop is aimed at preparing regional strategies for food security in the SAARC member counties focusing on increasing food productivity, reducing post-harvest losses and ensuring food accessibility to the poor.