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Abstracts
Panel: The Relationship between Food Insecurity, Poverty, Militancy and Conflict
Regional Grain Banking for Food Security: Realities from SAARC initiatives past and present
Regional Grain Banking for Food Security: Realities from SAARC initiatives past and present
Matthew J. D. Robinson*
This paper analyses the potential for a regional food bank in South Asia, which could mitigate the risk of national food shortages by collective storage of food by South Asian countries so that each country can meet its distribution needs in times of crisis. In particular it critically examines the regional food bank initiative under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), highlighting its shortcomings with the positive goal of ultimately improving the initiative for the socioeconomic benefit of member nations, especially their respective vulnerable populations. The paper reveals that failure to secure and store food by member countries has led to massive underutilisation of the initiative despite pressing food demands in the region, including wheat crisis in Pakistan, cyclone hit situation in Orissa, floods and cyclone in Bangladesh, and post-tsunami food crisis in Sri Lanka. Further, there exists operational issues hampering the success of the regional food bank such as, i) lack of timely and effective distribution of grains; ii) inadequate storage facilities and lack of efforts to expand these; and iii) price negotiations in violation of the agreement. The paper puts forth several policy recommendations so as to enhance the efficiency and reliability of the SAARC food bank initiative through improvements in storage, access and procedures to ensure timely usage of the reserve system during crisis situations.
*The author is associated with the CUTS Centre for International Trade, India.
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