SAARC to set up Food Bank

SAARC to set up Food Bank

India today pledged to contribute 1,53,000 tonnes of foodgrain to set up a Food Bank with an initial capacity of 243,000 tonnes for meeting the demand of SAARC countries during emergency-like situations.

The Food Bank, proposed at the Colombo Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meet in August, is expected to be operationalised next year. The proposal was today ratified at a meet of Agriculture Ministers of the region here.

"We have formalised the process for operationalisation of the Food Bank," India's Agriculture Minister and Chairman of the meet, Sharad Pawar, told reporters here. The capacity of the bank may be scaled up later depending on the situation, Pawar said. While India remains the largest contributor to the bank, both Pakistan and Bangladesh will offer 40,000 tonne each. Nepal and Sri Lanka will provide 4,000 tonne each followed by Afghanistan (1,420 tonne), Maldives (200 tonne) and Bhutan (180 tonne).

The foodgrain would be stored in different places in border areas of member nations, a top Indian Government official said, adding, a pricing formula has been agreed upon to supply the foodgrain in case of emergency. "We have not considered it yet... About 40 per cent of poor people live in this part of the world. Forming a cartel does not suit our purpose," Pawar said, while Bangladesh's adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, C S Karim, nodded in agreement. dailynews