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SAARC Regional consultation meeting on “Developing mechanism for effective sharing of Rice varieties in South Asia”

The regional expert consultation meeting on “Developing mechanism for effective sharing of Rice varieties in South Asia” was held on 18-19 November 2020. It was organized by SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) in a virtual mode and the National Focal Experts from seven SAARC Member Countries have participated in this important meeting. Mr. Kamalaranjan Das, Additional Secretary, Research wing, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Bangladesh has graced the opening session of the meeting as Chief Guest. Dr Nafees Meah,IRRI Representative for South Asia, New Delhi and Dr. Md. Shahjahan Kabir, Director General, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute attended the session as Special Guests. The Director of SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dr. Mian Sayeed Hassan cordially welcomed the participants and emphasized the importance of the meeting as Rice is a major staple food for millions of people across South Asia. The Chief guest highlighted the important role played by SAC in coordinating and creating common platforms for the experts of the region to share their knowledge and experiences and to disseminate knowledge for effective sharing of Rice varieties. The special guests have also shared the importance of Rice varieties, technologies developed by various Rice research institutes as well as coping up with demand for food during the COVID 19 pandemic in South Asia.  The contributions made by the SAC in disseminating agricultural technologies and sharing of information was highlighted.

During the two days meeting, National Focal Experts have shared the information and knowledge on prominent Rice varieties, technologies, seed production aspects and post-harvest handling along with the success stories in their respective countries. In addition, they have also presented the importance of Rice in improving rural livelihoods and contributions made to enhance rural economy. The meeting was highly interactive and discussions were fruitful as intended to achieve the objectives of the meeting. Based on the country status papers presentations and discussions during the meeting, key recommendations have emerged from the meeting for consideration by SAARC member countries for effective sharing of Rice varieties through an effective mechanism and approach in the region. In the closing session, Director of SAC thanked all National Focal Experts for their time and energy that they have spent in gathering information, compiling, analyzing and finally formulating in the form of presentations and country papers.

Some of the salient recommendations of the consultation meeting are highlighted below:

  • Bilateral and/ or multilateral MoU’s for exchange of Seeds (germplasm/varieties) and information of Rice among SAARC countries are to be executed and facilitated by SAC.
  • SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) is recommended as the coordinating body for monitoring and facilitating through the SAARC Seed Bankfor exchange of promising seed material and exercising the MTAs.
  • Multi-locational trials of nominated varieties/ lines are to be conducted to release as variety among SAARC Member States.
  • SAARC Member States should nominate nodal institution/s and nodal person/s to facilitate exchange of seed material and multi-locational trials of nominated varieties / lines.
  • Quarantine measures and biodiversity regulations of respective Member States to be followed in trans-boundary movement of germplasm / varieties.
  • Build local capacities in SAARC Member States to produce quality seeds, exercise novel extension tools (through IT applications), use advanced / accelerated breeding techniques and exchange updated information.
  • Collaborative research is to be promoted among SAARC Member States in prioritized areas of Rice research.
  • Each SAARC Member State shall share data base of Rice varieties / lines / technologies and link with SAC web portal.

In the programme on the inaugural day, Dr W.M.W. Weerakoon, Director General, Department of Agriculture, Gov. of Sri Lanka chaired the technical session-1 followed by Dr. Md. Aziz Zilani Chowdhury, MD (Crops), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council for the technical session-2. Dr. Mian Sayeed Hassan, Director SAARC Agriculture Centre chaired the technical session-3 on the second day. The recommendations were finalized during the meeting. Dr. Sreekanth Attaluri, Senior Programme Specialist (Crops) coordinated the entire programme.