SAARC Food Bank needs right impetus

As the concern for food security is looming over most parts of the world, one of the regions acutely susceptible to food-related crisis is South Asia. The SAARC region, to be precise, has rarely been in a position of strength when it comes to feeding the teeming millions-- with the number of hungry mouths on the increase. Years ago, there was a move from concerned quarters within the SAARC to address the issue. That ended up with the establishment of the SAARC Food Bank with a view to responding to food-related crises, but the entity has not been made use of till today, and no roadmap is in sight to render it meaningful. Understandably, the reason behind the inactivity of the Food Bank is related to political or economic issues, besides a lack of desired cohesion among the member countries to collaborate and work on a sustainable mechanism towards ensuring food security for the South Asian people.

Lately, the issue of the SAARC Food Bank has surfaced once again. There is a sense of serious frustration over the inaction and the lack of direction to make it workable with whatever resources available. It still remains uncertain whether the bank set up with high hopes would at all be able to offer some hope and respite in mitigating food-related crisis in the region. At the concluding session of a regional event, organised by the Internationl Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Kathmandu, Nepal, speakers, while deliberating on  the global food situation, in particular on the uncertainties facing the SAARC region over steady food supply,  stressed the need for the support that the Food Bank could provide. The two-day-long panel discussion ended on Tuesday, chaired by Dr Pramad K Joshi, president of Agricultural Economics Research Association, India. While summing up the outcome of the discussion, Mr Joshi said the globe as well as South Asia is now going through triple crises-- climate change, war in Europe, and the pandemic-induced consequences. Countries in South Asia are going through a higher inflation while a few countries, like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, are even witnessing stagflation, he said. A severe crisis is looming large, he warned, suggesting that the regional food bank be introduced to prevent the disaster.

What the aforementioned event has emphasised is more about the urgent need for activating the Food Bank than suggesting a way out to break the deadlock. It would have been much appreciated had the deliberations included some suggestions on ways to have the bank move ahead with a direction in an attempt to fulfil what it was meant to do.

It is, however, strange that the issue of the SAARC Food Bank has figured very rarely in the SAARC meetings over the past decades. Given the magnitude of the concern for food security, it is extremely important that the issue does come under the purview of the core agenda of the SAARC.