A three days (2-4 September, 2024) regional consultation meeting was conducted by the SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) in virtual mode on the “Development and dissemination of Biofortified varieties of different crops in the SAARC Member States”.
This meeting was attended by the Focal points of 6 SAARC Members States i.e., Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, scientists of different research organizations, Universities, and international organization HarvestPlus.
Ambassador Mr. Abdul Motaleb Sarker, Director General SAARC and BIMSTEC Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bangladesh was the Chief guest of this meeting. Dr Nazmun Nahar Karim, Executive Chairman BARC, attended this meeting as the Special guest, Mr. Jamalud Din Ahmad, Director ARD & SDF, SAARC Secretariat Nepal and Mr Rovinder Grover, Global Business Manager HarvestPlus Solutions were the Guests of Honor.
Dr Sikander Khan Tanveer Senior Program Specialist (Crops) gave presentation about the importance of Biofortification of crops and about the purpose of conducting of this meeting. Dr Khalida Islam, Chairman Department of Nutrition Dhak University gave a detailed presentation on the importance of proper nutrition for human health. Country papers were presented by the nominated focal persons of the different SAARC Member States.
There were 5 different technical sessions and these were chaired by the eminent scientists. There were eight invited guest speakers who gave presentations regarding the development of biofortified crops and other related aspects of biofortification of crops like their marketing etc. Dr Hummanth Bhindari, Country Representative for Bangladesh and Senior Agricultural Economist IRRI gave presentation on Biofortified Rice-experience of IRRI; Dr Abdur Rahman Bashir, Seed Systems Specialist Asia CIMMYT Nepal gave presentation on Maize Biofortification initiatives by CIMMYT in South Asia; Dr Javed Ahmad, Chief Scientist / Director Wheat Research Institute, Ayub Agriculture Research Institute Faisalabad Pakistan gave presentation regarding Biofortified wheat varieties production in Punjab-Pakistan; Mr Md. Wahidul Amin, Country Coordinator HarvestPlus Bangladesh gave presentation regarding Rice varieties in Bangladesh: Ways to impact and policy support; Dr Velu Govindan, Senior Scientist Wheat Breeding Global Wheat Program, CIMMYT, Mexico gave presentation on Wheat Biofortification at CIMMYT; Dr Arif Hussain Khan, Professor, Bangladesh Agricultural University Mymensingh Bangladesh gave presentation on Bio-fortification in Potato and Sweet potato and Dr Yaqub Mujahid, Country Manager, HarvestPlus Pakistan gave presentation on Akbar-2019, a success story of Biofortified wheat in Pakistan. There were detail discussions and questions and answers after each technical session.
It was concluded that biofortification of crops for different nutrients is very important to minimize the issue of malnutrition, which in the form of hidden hunger is causing a number of problems for all the people but poor people are facing this issue on large scale. Through biofortification of different crops, maximum people will get their needed nutrients i.e., Zn, Fe and other vitamins through their normal diet especially through their staple diets and there will be no need of fortification of crops. However, for this purpose along with the more research and development work, awareness of common people, and farming community is needed. Governments of all SAARC Member States should include the biofortification of crops in their policies.
