The governing board of SAARC Agriculture Centre on Wednesday agreed in principal to exchange new technologies and germ plasma to ensure food security in the region, says a press release.
The meeting of the Governing Board of SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) was held here at the headquarters of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), which was chaired by its Chairman, Gh. Rabani Haqiqatpal, Director Information Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock Afghanistan.
“We need joint programmes and being the member of SAARC we should experiment each others’ technologies and research findings in other ecologies to help develop food secure region,” Haqiqatpal remarked.
He highlighted the importance of integrating various programmes of the member countries and a mechanism to solve problems, adding that this exercise was directly related to the food security of the region. He was of the view that if any country introduces some new technology or develops some new germ plasma, it must be experimented in other countries for the mutual benefit of all the countries.
The board observed that the SAARC countries have great potential to cooperate with each other for the development of agriculture sector, however there is need to cooperate and share research and technology with the member countries to help them develop their agriculture on modern lines.
The SAC, Governing Board, on the occasion praised Pakistan for developing the state-of-the-art National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), which they said was not only contributing for the agricultural development of Pakistan but could play an important role in regional agriculture development.
The governing board showed concern over the information related to shifting of NARC, as proposed by the Capital Development Authority and observed that the centre was apex agriculture centre and has been contributing to agriculture development.
On the request of member from Nepal, the board recommended that the issue of holding two meetings of the board would be forwarded to SAARC secretariat for approval of financial assistance.
