MOU between SAC and ICRISAT to accelerate use of technology

Hydearbad: To build a network to accelerate use of technologies in agriculture across eight countries in South Asia, a new partnership has been formed.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation - SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is announced.

A release from ICRISAT informed that, ICRISAT and SAC will look for opportunities to carry out joint research in areas of mutual interest by sharing existing resources and results, as well as to speed up the process of varietal release and dissemination in the region by facilitate policy changes in National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS).

For maximising production and to increase sustained productivity in stress-prone areas through the extensive SAARC network, new and appropriate technologies will be adopted under the collaboration. And this will hel small-holding farmers to increase food production and increase their incomes in areas with limited availability of water by adopting these new and improved technologies

ICRISAT Director General David Bergvinson at the signing of the pact with SAC Director Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar said,"ICRISAT welcomes this partnership with SAARC to accelerate the release of proven crop production technologies across South Asia, especially improved varieties as has been done for rice. ICRISAT also sees additional opportunities in sharing best practise in seed systems and can work with SAARC on their new Seed Bank."

He also said that food and nutritional security is one of the biggest challenges for the region is food and nutritional security. The large use of ground water is a big issues as being rice growing country and SAARC can help facilitate the exchange of technologies between countries in the region.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/