Findings of the Work-shop
Two days work-shop held on August 13-14 in New Delhi. Papers on the
respected areas were presented by the SAARC nations except
Afghanistan. Some common issues on food insecurity, way out to
overcome the insecurity and area of regional co-operation for food
security presented by the delegates were summarized and listed in the
bullets.
A. Factor affecting food security in SAARC Nations
1. Stagnancy in productivity (Land degradation)
2. Energy crisis/ high input costs
3. Decline in income
4. Global food price surge
5. High dependence on imported food
6. Growing incidences of food related diseases
7. Increase in poverty
8. Declining land resources
9. Food safety loads
10. Volatility supply uncertainty and price. Climate change impacts
11. Global economic crisis; Bio-fuel issue-reduce availability; Export
restriction by country
12. Remittances growth is slowing down
13. Climate change affects food production
14. Wild life depredations to crops and livestock
15. Population increase
16. Generally, small farmers do not have level playing field with large
holding in accessing land, credit, inputs, markets and technology etc
17. Inadequate savings for investments
18. Lack of property rights and land issues for women farmers
19. Low level of formal education and skills
20. Diversification challenges: risk and vulnerability
21. Globalization challenges
22. Low investment in agriculture
23. Low agricultural productivity
24. Poor infrastructure and connectivity
25. Weak resilience capacity
26. Recurrent natural disasters and impact of climate change
27. Lack of risk mitigation instruments such as credit and insurance
program
28. Highly skewed land distribution
29. Rural out-migration is very high
30. Inadequate knowledge of consumers on nutritional value and proper
food utilization (Nepal)
31. High cost of production
32. Labor shortage and high wages
33. Seasonal production depend on rainfall and drought period-price
fluctuation
34. High cost of storage facilities
35. Low processing facilities and value addition
36. Geographical limitations on crop production
37. Poor dissemination of production and protection technologies
38. Ignorance of purpose about the value of consumption of fruits and
vegetables for healthy life
39. High cost of transport and wages
40. Lower productivity of food crops
41. Insufficient extension services and inadequate skills of farmers
42. Insufficient and lack of timely availability of quality seeds, fertilizers
and other inputs
43. Lack of adequate storage, processing and conservation facilities
44. In adequate infrastructure and high cost of transportation
45. Insufficient public distribution system
46. Unemployment and high incidence of poverty
47. In adequate infrastructure and high cost of transportation
48. Lack of regulation and under developed rural markets
49. Prevalence of discrimination in food distribution by gender and age
50. Low level of awareness about food and nutrition among producer
and consumers and high food adulteration
51. Weak monitoring of food markets
52. Low level of Safe drinking water, sanitation and electrification
53. Lack of harmonization of nutrition standards and guidelines with
international norms.
54. Inadequate irrigation facilities and rain-fed agriculture system 55.
High food inflation
56. Inadequate social safety net
B. Way out to overcome the food insecurity in the region
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Investment in Agriculture
Efficient use of water
Ensure input availability
Crop diversification, specialization and commercialization
Cash subsidy to small and marginal farmers
Efficient food market infrastructure, information, early warning
system
7. Technology adoption, mechanization and irrigation
8. Reducing post harvest losses
9. Improving Milling technologies
10. Bringing fallow land to cultivation
11. Addressing water stresses and drought
12. Encourage private sector for commercialization
13. Upscale farm mechanization and labor saving technologies
14. Exempt sales tax and import duties on farm machineries
15. Promote co-ops and farmers’ groups for production
16. Protect agriculture land through legal instruments
17. Participate in regional and international food security initiatives
18. Improve disaster preparedness capacity to respond disaster
19. Focus on small farmers
C. Area of Regional cooperation for food security
1.
2.
3.
4.
Improving agricultural productivity
Climate change
Post harvest technologies and operations
Learning from social protection program particularly reduction in
malnutrition
5. Cooperation in knowledge net works
6. Learning in accountability and governance
7. Acting on global level cooperation
8. In the field of agriculture
8.1. Every country having buffer stock is expensive. Therefore,
regional cooperation is needed
8.2. Agricultural trade among the countries is important
8.3. Joint agricultural research programmes for development of
abiotic stress tolerant improved varieties and hybrid and natural
resource management techniques
8.4. Cooperation in new sciences such as GIS, remote sensing,
water forecasting, system modeling
8.5. Free exchange of technologies and information
8.6. Capacity building
9. Strengthen and use of SAARC food bank
10. Increase intra regional trade
11. Regional approach to intellectual property rights
12. Cooperation on climate change
13. Cooperation in post harvest operation
14. Cooperation in knowledge networks
15. Learning on accountability and delivery system
16. Acting on global level co-operation
17. Establishment of early warning system
18. Conservation and proper utilization of natural resources, including
river water
19. Collaborative agriculture research
20. Coordinating price policies
Content
S.No Subject
Page Remarks
No
1
Inaugural speech
1
2
3
Findings Of the work-shop
Bangladesh National Food……
5
9
4
5
Food security policy of Bhutan
India: National food security…
16
20
6
Maldives National Food Security
strategies
Food security Strategies…..
27
Food insecurity in Pakistan and the
scope for regional coop…
National food security of Sri Lanka
38
7
8
9
10
30
42
Nepal: Food security strategies within 49
the regional frame work
H.E. Dr.
R.K.Shakya
NPC, Nepal
Khadokar Atiar
Rohman
Prof. S.
Mahendra Dev
Abdul Naseer
BB Basnet,
Nepal
Duaa Sayed
Nimal
Dissanayaka
Posh raj Pandey
(SWATEE)