The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Campaigners for a new South Asia said the SAARC must immediately operationalize the regional food bank and devise concrete plan of action for sustainable agriculture to ensure food security of more than 500 million hardcore poor.

A large number of civil-society organizations working in a network under the banner 'Imagine a New South Asia (INSA)' made the call Tuesday. Actionaid provides strategic support to INSA in realizing the group's vision.

Their joint call, released simultaneously across the region on the eve of SAARC Agriculture Ministers' conference in New Delhi, warned if concrete actions were not taken to address the food-security issue at this meeting, the number of hungry people in the region would go up to 588 million by 2009.

Dr Qazi Kholiquzzam Ahmad, chairperson of INSA Steering Committee and President of Bangladesh Economic Association, said the ministers should come up with institutional arrangements to address the estimated food demands of the people and rationalize storage capacity of the member-states.

"The terms and conditions for withdrawing from the food bank and meeting the replenishment requirements of the bank should not be tough and should be handled keeping in view the national capacity of the member-states," he said.

The Civil Society in South Asia called upon the ministers, meeting in the Indian capital Thursday, to promote intra-regional trade in farm products by delisting some of the farm products from the negative list under the Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area in a phase-wise manner or on a trial basis.

In this regard, they also made a strong plea for removing para-tariff and non-tariff barriers to agriculture trade.

It is also essential to strengthen the procurement mechanism required for the effective operationalization of the SAARC Food Bank, they said.