Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed, secretary general of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), will launch a three-day training workshop in the city today on sustainable use of water resources to promote food security in South Asia.
The workshop titled "Saarc-Australia Project on developing capacity in cropping systems modeling for sustainable use of water resources to promote food security in South Asia" is scheduled to be held at Saarc Agriculture Centre (SAC).
The project is being undertaken by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and International Rice Research Institute. The main interface with Saarc is through SAC, says a SAC press release yesterday.
The two-year project will capitalise on SAC's core capability in convening and executing multi-country training courses and workshops and fostering multilateral collaboration across Saarc member states.
The project will provide a series of training workshops, with associated experimental activities, to researchers, designed to obtain quality datasets for modeling purposes and deepen experts' skills and knowledge in data acquisition and participatory techniques.
SAC notes that the decrease in or lack of water available for agriculture and the need for improved water productivity in both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture is one of the major emerging threats to food security in South Asia.
Source : The Daily Star
