Seven South Asian nations presented country status report and deliberated on the recommendations required for strengthening fisheries value-chain in the region for ensuring food security in a recently concluded regional expert consultation meeting organized by the Centre. The country status reports were presented during the virtual meeting on ‘Promoting Innovations in Fisheries Value Chain for Improving Human Nutrition in South Asia’ held on 24th and 25th November, 2020 organized by the SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka. Two member team from seven SAARC nations, -Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan, participated during the said meeting.
Inaugurating the event, Dr Yahia Mahmud, Director General, Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) addressed the delegates as Chief Guest and indicated the challenges on various fold in successfully promoting fisheries value-chain in the region. There is a need for germplasm transfer in the region, he said and indicated his willingness for sharing ‘Super-Tilapia’ developed in BFRI to all South Asian Nations. Further, he added about his requirement for milk-fish germplasm from India. He also chaired the technical session-1.
Dr. Cherdsak Virapat, Director General while addressing the delegates indicated the close knit relation CIRDAP has with SAARC as six countries are part of both platforms. The competitiveness of fisheries and aquaculture not only opens up opportunities in livelihood but also in trade. Therefore, fisheries value-chain is a wealth creating activity which can alleviate poverty in addition to its nutritional prospects, he added. Earlier during the meeting Dr. Hassan, Director SAARC Agriculture Centre welcomed the gathering. He said that the promotion of innovative technologies in fisheries value-chain will improve the nutritional quality of food in the region and is closely abridged with the SDG guidelines and targets set by United Nations.
Seven country status presentation and one resource speaker presented their views. The delegates deliberated upon the issues, challenges and opportunities. Dr. J.K. Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries), ICAR, Government of India chaired the technical session-2. Dr. Mian Sayeed Hassan, Director SAARC Agriculture Centre chaired the technical session-3 during second day. The recommendations were finalized during the meeting. Dr. Grinson George, Senior Programme Specialist (Fisheries) coordinated the entire programme.
