The three day ‘International Seminar on Climate Smart Farming Systems’ for BIMSTEC countries organized by the Department of Agricultural Research & Education, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare and Indian Council of Agricultural Research began today in New Delhi. Participants from all the Seven BIMSTEC Countries viz. Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and BIMSTEC Secretariat is attending the Seminar.

Inaugurating the seminar Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary DARE and DG ICAR emphasized that despite climate changes, farmers’ income can be enhanced effectively by adopting technological interventions. He further stated that the small holding farming is a challenge while applying the farm mechanization technology as a component of climate resilient agriculture. He asserted that India is committed to define the targets for reducing the emissions, to develop technologies and implement those at the ground level in order to mitigate and adapt to challenging agricultural situations.

Mr. Han Thein Kyaw, Director, BIMSTEC Secretariat, Myanmar urged the farmers to adopt the modern technologies in farming and agriculture in accordance with the changing climate scenario in the world. He added that this would help to maintain the nutritional quality of crops and food products.

The seminar is being organized as a Government of India initiative as announced earlier by the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi at the 4^th BIMSTEC Summit at Kathmandu on 30-31^st August, 2019. The objective of this International Seminar is to have experience sharing to enable improvement of tropical smallholder farming systems for greater productivity and resilience to climate change through ecological approaches. Some of the success stories shall be shared as case studies for the benefit of the BIMSTEC countries. The Seminar would have invited lectures and sharing of experiences, visits to state-of-art facilities and field visits to have first-hand experiences.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization comprising of seven member states in South Asia and Southeast Asia lying in littoral and adjacent areas of Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity. This sub-regional organisation came into being on June 6, 1997, through the Bangkok Declaration.

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APS/JP