Bangladesh and India should accept high-yielding variety (HYV) rice seeds as a potential area of cooperation as the collaboration in this area is ‘almost negligible’, says a recent study.
The study indicates that availability and accessibility of rice seeds can significantly be improved through cooperation between the two next door neighbours.
Rice is a staple food for the people of the two countries, and therefore, food security of the two nations is largely dependent on its availability.
The study titled ‘Addressing Barriers to Rise seeds Trade between India and Bangladesh’ suggests that there is a need for bringing in necessary changes in policies and regulations.
“Despite several instances of informal movement of HYV rice across the border, formal trade is conspicuous by its absence,” says the joint communiqué published by the CUTS Center for International Trade, Economic and Environment, India and Unnayan Shamannay on the study.
In the absence of formal trade, the issue of timely availability and accessibility to HYV rice seed persists and this leads to informal flow of substantial quantity of HYV rice seeds, it observes.
This, along with other factors, pushes farmers to use ‘farmer saved seeds’, compromising crop yields and consequent to this their food security, it says.
The study suggests that formalizing HYV rice seed trade between the two countries will take agricultural cooperation to a higher level, and would also make quality seed available and more accessible at an affordable price to farmers.
“There’s a great scope for developing and releasing stress-tolerant varieties in both the countries. Such efforts could help effectively address the adverse impact of climate change on poverty and food security,” it says explaining how cooperation in HYV rice seed can be useful.
Such cooperation, the study says, will also be useful in making food accessible even in the context of volatility in the global food grain market.
