AGL 41.50 Increased By ▲ 2.96 (7.68%)
AIRLINK 128.00 Decreased By ▼ -1.50 (-1.16%)
BOP 6.26 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (11.59%)
CNERGY 4.13 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (6.99%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-3.32%)
DFML 40.69 Decreased By ▼ -1.07 (-2.56%)
DGKC 87.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.40 (-0.45%)
FCCL 34.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.90 (-2.57%)
FFBL 66.33 Decreased By ▼ -1.02 (-1.51%)
FFL 10.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.47%)
HUBC 108.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.06%)
HUMNL 14.46 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-1.36%)
KEL 4.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-2.11%)
KOSM 7.33 Increased By ▲ 0.38 (5.47%)
MLCF 42.72 Increased By ▲ 1.07 (2.57%)
NBP 60.84 Increased By ▲ 1.24 (2.08%)
OGDC 178.97 Decreased By ▼ -4.03 (-2.2%)
PAEL 25.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.55 (-2.1%)
PIBTL 6.06 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (1.51%)
PPL 146.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.55 (-0.37%)
PRL 24.91 Increased By ▲ 1.30 (5.51%)
PTC 16.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-2.54%)
SEARL 70.20 Increased By ▲ 1.90 (2.78%)
TELE 7.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.14%)
TOMCL 36.20 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (0.7%)
TPLP 7.84 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.13%)
TREET 15.59 Increased By ▲ 1.39 (9.79%)
TRG 50.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.18%)
UNITY 26.90 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.56%)
WTL 1.24 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (2.48%)
BR100 9,795 Decreased By -11.1 (-0.11%)
BR30 29,647 Decreased By -31.2 (-0.1%)
KSE100 92,021 Decreased By -282.9 (-0.31%)
KSE30 28,665 Decreased By -175.5 (-0.61%)

A special meeting of Saarc Agriculture Ministers held here endorsed setting up of Food Bank to provide emergency support to member countries. Talking to APP here, Tauqir Ahmed Faiq, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Food and Agriculture said Pakistan would contribute 40,000 tonne food-grain to the bank while India would contribute 1,53,000 tonne and Bangladesh 40,000 tonne.
Nepal and Sri Lanka will provide 4,000 tonne each followed by Afghanistan (1,420 tonne), Maldives (200 tonne) and Bhutan (180 tonne). The member countries will store the contributed food-grain close to the borders. Pakistan will communicate the locations of such storages by November 15, he said. Similarly, he said Saarc agriculture 20-20 vision was also adopted in the meeting.
Modalities to provide food assistance from the Food Bank to member states in case of emergency will be decided by board of directors, he said. The last Saarc Summit in Colombo had decided to hold this special meeting of agriculture Ministers in New Delhi to discuss the issue of food security in South Asia.
Pakistan Agriculture Minister could not attend this meeting, as he was indisposed, he said. The Indian Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the meeting had formalised the process for operationalisation of the Food Bank. Talking to newsmen, he said two declarations on UG99, a form of rust that destroys wheat crops, and food security was agreed upon. A proposal to harmonise bio-fertiliser standards through Saarc Regional Standards Organisation was also signed.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2008

Comments

Comments are closed.