Saarc Food Bank started its fourth meeting yesterday in Dhaka to make the bank operational in an effort to address any food crisis in South Asia.
The food and disaster management ministry, foreign affairs ministry and the Saarc Secretariat jointly organised the two-day meeting. The meeting ends today.
Saarc Food Bank was established in 2007 to meet the emergency food crisis due to destruction of crops by natural calamites or other reasons.
Any Saarc country suffering a food crisis can demand food from other countries that earmark food for the cause.
However, it could not be made effective because certain issues, such as uniform standard of food grains, mode of transport and price, were not settled.
Addressing as chief guest, Food Minister Abdur Razzaque said: “The Saarc member countries need to focus on several issues — food-grain pricing, operational guidelines and delivery systems — to make the Food Bank operational.”
Food Secretary Barun Dev Mitra, Saarc Secretariat Director Reaz Hamidullah and members of the Saarc Food Bank governing were also present at the inaugural session.
