SAARC Agri Centre, ICRISAT ink pact to accelerate use of tech

Hyderabad, Aug 24 (PTI) A new partnership has been formedto build a network to accelerate use of technologies inagriculture across eight countries in South Asia. This was announced at the signing of a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) between the South Asian Association forRegional Cooperation – SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) and thecity-based International Crops Research Institute for theSemi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here. ICRISAT and SAC will look for opportunities to carry outjoint research in areas of mutual interest by sharing existingresources and results, as well as facilitate policy changes inNational Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) to speed up theprocess of varietal release and dissemination in the region, arelease from ICRISAT said. Under the collaboration, new and appropriate technologieswill be adopted for maximising production and to increasesustained productivity in stress-prone areas through theextensive SAARC network, it said. This will help small-holding farmers to adopt these newand improved technologies to increase food production andraise their incomes in areas with limited availability ofwater. "ICRISAT welcomes this partnership with SAARC toaccelerate the release of proven crop production technologiesacross South Asia, especially improved varieties as has beendone for rice. Apart from accelerated release of improvedvarieties, ICRISAT sees additional opportunities in sharingbest practise in seed systems and can work with SAARC on theirnew Seed Bank," said ICRISAT Director General David Bergvinsonat the signing of the pact with SAC Director Shaikh MohammadBokhtiar. Bokhtiar said one of the biggest challenges for theregion is food and nutritional security. "In the past we did not talk about the nutritionalquality of our agriculture but now it is of high importance.We will be working with the region to pull together a regionalstrategy for food and nutrition." Being rice growing countries, the large use of groundwater is a big issue, he said. "We are also using and depleting so many nutrients fromthe soil, which will be a big problem for the next generation.SAARC can help facilitate the exchange of technologies betweencountries in the region," he added. This collaboration will significantly contribute tothe medium-term food and nutritional security in the region,he said. PTI VVK NRBTIRRDS