Develop plan on regional farming, BIMSTEC told
New Delhi, November 10
India today urged Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) member countries to cooperate in developing a comprehensive regional strategy to strengthen cooperation for the transformation of agriculture and participate in its initiative to promote millet for a friendly agricultural food system and nutrition.
Speaking at the second Agriculture Ministers’ meeting of BIMSTEC under his chairmanship, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged the member countries to cooperate in developing a comprehensive regional strategy to strengthen cooperation for the transformation of agriculture.
The Agriculture Ministers of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated in the meeting.
Referring to the importance of millet as a nutritious food and the efforts made by India to promote it during International Year of Millets, 2023, he urged the member countries to adopt a conducive agricultural food system and a healthy diet for all.
He asked participating countries to actively participate in India’s initiative to promote millets as food.
Natural and ecological farming should be promoted to conserve agricultural biodiversity and reduce the use of chemicals, he said.
Tomar said along with digital farming and precision farming, initiatives under the ‘One Health’ approach were also taking shape in India.
He emphasised the importance of cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors to ensure food security, nutrition, environmental sustainability and livelihood support, for which it is required to increase technical and economic cooperation to deal with the challenges of climate change.
