⇒ India hosted the 8th Meeting of Agriculture Experts of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Countries virtually on 31 August 2021.
Experts:
Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research & Education, and Director General, ICAR chaired the day long meeting.
Experts of Agricultural Ministries from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand participated in the meeting.
Discussion:
» The Chairman highlighted the UN Food System Summit 2021 and the transformations that are happening in the agriculture and food systems globally.
» He also emphasized addressing biosafety and biosecurity concerns and promoting digital agriculture along with the trade of technologies for developing resilient agriculture, food systems and value chains.
» The cooperation in the areas of high impact transboundary diseases of livestock and poultry, aquatic animal diseases and bio-security in aquaculture and digitalization to promote precision farming was also discussed in the meeting.
About BIMSTEC:
The BIMSTEC provides a unique link between South and South-East Asia with 5 countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from South Asia and two countries – Myanmar and Thailand from South-East Asia.
The BIMSTEC was founded in 1997 with an ambition to pursue mutual trade, connectivity and cultural, technical and economic development in the region.