SAARC Food ministers agree to create Regional Food Bank
By Tariq Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD—The SAARC Agricultural and Food Ministers Thursday decided to create SAARC Regional Food Bank to meet food emergencies in the region to support a country in need and to face food shortages collectively with due consideration to humanitarian aspects.
The meeting finalized the Concept Paper based on which an Agreement would be developed and negotiated. It is expected that the Agreement would be concluded before the next Summit in April 2007. The meeting was chaired by Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock of government of Pakistan. Other ministers who attended the meeting included Sharad Pawar from India, Mohamed Zubair from the Maldives. Mr Mahanta Thakur from Nepal and Mr Chamal Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka.
Promote technical cooperation in agricultural research and extension to enhance agricultural performance of the region. It identified areas of focus for effective Research-Extension-farmer linkages both at the national and regional level. It decided on mechanism, such as Inter-governmental core Group. E-based discussion groups have been suggested to initiate dialogue with all stakeholders including private sector practitioners.
The meeting also decided to expand the mandate of the SAARC Agricultural Information center (SAIC), Dhaka.
Identified areas for possible regional and sub-regional projects and joint ventures.
Development of a SAARC Agricultural perspective Vision, based on the perspectives of the individual member states. Because of the centrality of agriculture to the Doha Development Agenda and its primacy in the SAARC Countries the meeting expressed disappointment and concern at the stalled Doha development Agenda negotiations. It called upon the developed countries to show flexibility to early resumption of the negotiations and successful conclusion of the Round.
The meeting recommended that Agricultural projects should receive the highest priority in fund allocations from the recently created SAARC Development Fund (SDF). The meeting decided that in view of the importance of agriculture to SAARC countries, ministerial meetings should be held at least once a year. The meeting accepted the offer of India to hold next meeting in India in 2007.