Saarc stresses on food, energy security

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Cadbury, Nestle lock horns over Pehli tarikh adWe have ample stock of food grains: FM

New Delhi, Aug 3: in the region, but marginalised the cultivation of many coarse cereals in the dryland areas. The cultivation of water intensive crops like paddy and sugarcane in relatively dry areas have caused ecological and water scarcity problems.

To tackle the situation the Planning Commission in India has called for state-specific, region-specific cropping pattern and measures for addressing the food security problem. The 11th Plan has also proposed for diversification into horticulture, livestock, poultry, fisheries in areas where it is feasible and warranted. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been asked to identify crops and livelihood options specific to each region for necessary technological intervention for improvement. This agenda has been incorporated in the recently launched India’s National Food Security Mission.

A separate and effective food security and livelihood options need to be proposed for the forest dwellers, in particular.

The ICAR in its recent document--State-specific Technological Intervention for Higher Agricultural Growth--has proposed improved seeds, resource conservation technologies, vermin-composting, crop diversification, mushroom cultivation, honeybee farming, livestock and poultry, fishery, post-harvest management and value-addition suited to each of the regions.

Incidentally many of the technologies and interventions proposed some specific regions in India can be applied to other countries in South Asia like situations in Andaman & Nicobar Islands can match with that in the Maldives and Sri Lanka to an extent. The conditions in Sikkim and northeastern India are similar to that in Bhutan and Nepal. Bangladesh bears a lot of similarity with West Bengal in India and also the conditions in Pakistan are similar to that in northwestern India. It is thus a situation of sharing each others experiences.

Regarding, energy security the Pakistan prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani has rightly stressed the need for harnessing the region's potential for renewable power. The South Asia region has a vast potential for harnessing power from solar, wind, biomass and wastes, small hydro-system sources. Besides there are on-going research programme for use hydrogen, tidal wave and geo-thermal sources for generating energy for commercial use.