'SAARC Food Bank' falling short of its objectives
Saturday, 30 October 2010
With the 'SAARC Food Bank' unable to make any significant contribution in ensuring food security in the region, the dream of mounting a united fight against hunger in the South Asian region still remains far away, reports UNB.
Although the two-day 4th board meeting of the 'SAARC Food Bank' concluded in Dhaka Thursday, no concrete outcomes towards ensuring regional food security were forthcoming.
The scheduled meeting was held to deliberate on ways to make the much-touted food bank effective and operational for supplying food in emergency periods addressing the victims' demands, a SAARC official told the news agency.
He said the bank is not yet able to reserve adequate food grains to ensure regional food security.
Official sources said at present around 243,000 tonnes of food grains are preserved in eight SAARC member countries under the 'SAARC Food Bank', with a vast majority of 153,000 tonnes preserved in India, 40,000 tonnes in Bangladesh, another 40,000 in Pakistan, 4,000 tonnes each in Nepal and Sri Lanka, 1200 tonnes in Afghanistan, 200 tonnes in Bhutan and 180 tonnes in Maldives.
But the meeting proposed increasing the strategic reserve at the food bank to 400,000 tonnes from present 243,000 tonnes. Later, there are plans to increase it to one million tonnes.
Experts observed that due to rapid growth of population outpacing declining agricultural land in the region, the number of hungry people is increasing day by day, putting the future food security at risk.
They said the reserve of the 'SAARC Food Bank' is inadequate to address food crisis during any emergency crisis, as well as to ensure food security in the South Asian Region.
About 23 per cent of the world population is living in the region, but it generates only about two per cent of global income.
Housing about 40 per cent of world poor (living on less than a dollar a day) and 35 per cent of the world's undernourished, the region has the highest concentration of poverty and food insecurity in the world after the Sub-Saharan African.
Although the two-day 4th board meeting of the 'SAARC Food Bank' concluded in Dhaka Thursday, no concrete outcomes towards ensuring regional food security were forthcoming.
The scheduled meeting was held to deliberate on ways to make the much-touted food bank effective and operational for supplying food in emergency periods addressing the victims' demands, a SAARC official told the news agency.
He said the bank is not yet able to reserve adequate food grains to ensure regional food security.
Official sources said at present around 243,000 tonnes of food grains are preserved in eight SAARC member countries under the 'SAARC Food Bank', with a vast majority of 153,000 tonnes preserved in India, 40,000 tonnes in Bangladesh, another 40,000 in Pakistan, 4,000 tonnes each in Nepal and Sri Lanka, 1200 tonnes in Afghanistan, 200 tonnes in Bhutan and 180 tonnes in Maldives.
But the meeting proposed increasing the strategic reserve at the food bank to 400,000 tonnes from present 243,000 tonnes. Later, there are plans to increase it to one million tonnes.
Experts observed that due to rapid growth of population outpacing declining agricultural land in the region, the number of hungry people is increasing day by day, putting the future food security at risk.
They said the reserve of the 'SAARC Food Bank' is inadequate to address food crisis during any emergency crisis, as well as to ensure food security in the South Asian Region.
About 23 per cent of the world population is living in the region, but it generates only about two per cent of global income.
Housing about 40 per cent of world poor (living on less than a dollar a day) and 35 per cent of the world's undernourished, the region has the highest concentration of poverty and food insecurity in the world after the Sub-Saharan African.