saarcagri - Report on Observance of 24th SAARC Charter Day

Welcome Address
Dr. Rafiqul Islam Mondal, Director, SAC welcomed the Chief Guest, the Guest of Honour and all other learned participants. Dr. Mondal briefly introduced the mandate, objectives and programme of activities of SAARC Agriculture Centre to the audience. He emphasized on the significance of the SAARC Charter Day for execution of programmes on common issues relating to agriculture that SAARC countries have to deal with on a combined and cooperative manner. Dr. Mondal thanked Dr. Mangala Rai and expressed his gratitude for accepting the invitation to visit

Bangladesh and share his views and thoughts on such an important issues of SAARC region in the seminar.

The Executive Chairman of BARC
The Executive Chairman BARC, Dr. Wais Kabir mentioned that regional cooperation is very much important for a successful development in the region. SAARC has to go a long way through a meaningful cooperation among the member countries by sharing the best practices in the agricultural sectors. Later, Dr. Kabir introduced Dr. Mangala Rai to the audience as an eminent scientist besides being an efficient and dynamic leader of one of the largest national agricultural research system in the world.

Keynote Speech
Dr. Mangala Rai, the Keynote Speaker of the seminar underlined the need for identifying the problems and ground realities in the agriculture and allied sectors and urged the scientists, policy makers and politicians of the SAARC nations to find out solution in context with the foreseeable future needs in the region. The major problem in the region is raising and continuing the sustainable growth in agriculture. Enhanced and sustaining escalation in agricultural growth is absolutely essential in SAARC countries for achieving the equity, social justice and harmonized growth. Agriculture must be the pivotal centre for accelerating growth to address perpetual economic problems in the region.

The severe economic problems in the region can be overcome by enhancement in productivity and intensification of agriculture by increasing cropping intensity as the area of cultivation being remained static, rather declining day by day. And of course, the profitability should be brought in to the picture to play its right role to support and proper valuation of the productivity. As the population is continuously increasing and more than 50% of the population are engaged in agriculture as a whole; therefore, creation of more job opportunities is the basic key for sustainable growth in the agriculture sector in the region.

As the pressure on the cultivable lands for growing more crops is continuing to be four to six times more as compared to developed countries, the soils are becoming less productive due to over mining of plant nutrients particularly micronutrients and organic matters. Dr. Rai stated that for producing one kilogram of rice the farmers need to irrigate his field with 3000 litres of water. Therefore, massive mining of natural resources like sub surface water and other macro and micronutrients from the soil is putting the productive soil in a vulnerable situation, and thereby toxic heavy metals including arsenic are entering into the human food chain.

Dr. Mangala Rai emphasized for managing agricultural inputs in a professional manner and underscore the need for efficient management of all bio resources, i.e., biotechnology, biofertilizers, biopesticides, biomedicines and biosecurity among the SAARC member countries. He urged for massive improvement of crop varieties by genetic engineering considering the temperature rise and global climatic changes that are creating an alarming situation in achieving food security in the SAARC member countries. He also urged to enhance research capability by improving institutional facilities, human resource development, increasing international collaborations and more investment in agricultural research and development.

The Ministerial speech by Begum Matia Chowdhury
Begum Matia Chowdhury, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Bangladesh stated that SAARC is an association based in an increasingly inter-dependent world, with the objectives of achieving the peace, economic prosperity and social justice in the South Asia region. Till now, the objectives are achieved in the region by fostering mutual understanding, good neighbourly relations and meaningful cooperation among Member States, bound by the ties of history, common values and deep-rooted cultural bonds.

Globally, SAARC is a unique concept of regional cooperation. With a very distinct geographical, cultural and environmental diversity, the SAARC member states comprises of the worlds highest mountains, land locked terrains to deltaic low lying flood–prone areas and one of the smallest low lying island in the world. With the world’s most populous countries, SAARC is the home to nearly 1.5 billion people or about 22% of world’s population. The birth of SAARC on December 8, 1985 has made a milestone event in the history of the South Asian Region towards creation of an economically prosperous, peaceful and stable South Asia for the future.

Chairperson’s Speech
Mr. CQK Mustaq Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh thanked Dr. Mangala Rai for his in-depth and thought provoking speech towards meeting the future challenges in the agriculture and allied sectors in the region. He mentioned that the SAARC nations have tremendous potential and we need to work together to harvest from those potentials. Mr. Ahmed said that all of the problems have some solutions inside of them and we need to find out the most workable solution for each of the problems. The agricultural scientists need to find out the most smart way out for achieving the food security among the region.