India virtually hosts 8th meeting of agriculture experts of BIMSTEC countries

India hosted the 8th Meeting of Agriculture Experts of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Countries yesterday virtually. Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research chaired the daylong meeting. Ministry of Agriculture said that experts of Agricultural Ministries from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand participated in the meeting. 

During the meeting, Dr Mohapatra highlighted the UN Food System Summit 2021 and the transformations that are happening in the agriculture and food systems globally.

He exhorted to enhance the engagement and deepen the cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors amongst the BIMSTEC Member States. 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 BIMSTEC Member States appreciated the greater engagement of India offering six slots of scholarships each for Master and PhD programmes in agriculture and its other initiatives for capacity development and training including the development of seed sectors. 

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.

The BIMSTEC provides a unique link between South and South-East Asia with five countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from South Asia and two countries – Myanmar and Thailand from South-East Asia coming together on one platform for cooperation in 14 key economic and social sectors of the economy.