Food Diplomacy’ might help bolster Pakistan-India relations

[fatman17]

Food Diplomacy’ might help bolster Pakistan-India relations

Special Correspondent

LAHORE: After the launching of the cricket diplomacy, which had played very positive role in breaking the impasse between both the neighbouring countries India and Pakistan, now is the turn of "Food Diplomacy" leading the way to nurturing goodwill ties and improving further the existing level of Indo-Pak relations.

With the change of winds in Pakistan, now were the farmers, agrarians and experts of this part of Punjab which took the message of food diplomacy, thus bringing the people of both the Punjabs of India and Pakistan closer to each other and hence enhancing bilateral ties. They set new trend of mutual cooperation by initiating the "Basmati Diplomacy" urging their counterparts to take joint stand on the patent rights of Basmati rice in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), urging the governments of both the countries to open up the borders for trade and visa relaxation.

A 16-member delegation of Farmers Association of Pakistan (FAP) led by the former Punjab minister for food, Syed Hussain Jehanian Gardezi kicked-off its seven-day visit of Indian Punjab to participate in workshop on "Total Agriculture between India and Pakistan - Connecting Farmers through Knowledge Sharing on Agriculture" commencing from March 23-29. The delegation comprising of farmers, agrarian experts, scientists, representatives of banking, dairy and veterinary as well as media, left Wahga border on the historic day of March 23 and stationed at Chandigarh for workshop while visited four different districts. The workshop was arranged by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh, sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs, India.

An unprecedented warm reception was accorded to the delegation by the hosts everywhere on the either side of the Punjab while sometimes emotional scenes and exchange of comfy words were also exchanged on reciprocal basis.

The air, people, food, culture and topography, it all feels the same after entering Wahga to India's Punjab. But in some areas our Punjab is better. It is just that kinnoos, mangoes, Basmati rice having better taste and world recognition while they have edge in vegetables and peanuts. So was the common feeling/view of the delegation members.

The members of the delegation included agriculturist and FAP Chief Coordinator Muhammad Idrees Khokhar, progressive farmers Ejaz Hussain Maneka, Shaukat Hussain, Dr. Muhammad Yaqin and Haroon Moosa Jhandir, Vice Chancellor, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nawaz, CEO Punjab Agricultural Research Board (PARB) Dr. Mubarik Ali, while the representatives of media were Ahmed Fraz Khan besides Deputy Managing Director, Punjab Seed Corporation Abdul Shakoor Shad, CEO Solex Chemicals Abdul Wahid Sandhu and CEO Kashmir Dairy Khawaja Muhammad Ayub from Dairy Sector.

During the stay, the delegation members got the opportunity to meet with some of the Indian dignitaries including Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Governor F. S. Roderigues (who is former Chief of army Staff), Chief Secretary, Secretary Agriculture R. S. Sandhu, hosts Dr. S. K. Mangal, Ambassador (retd) P. S. Sahai and Dr. G. S. Kalkat.

While undertaking a very hectic schedule of their itinerary, the delegation members visited five different cities of Indian Punjab including Amritsar, Jalandar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Chandigarh. Besides attending the three-day workshop and actively participating in the in-house roundtable debates, the entourage members also undertook field visits of the four cities, the main hub of agricultures across the border and catering the entire country's needs of staple food up to 60 percent while our Punjab is major producer of staple food items and has been catering the needs up to 80 percent of entire country of wheat, paddy (rice), cotton, sugarcane.

The farmer of Indian Punjab is more prosperous and having an edge over its counterpart due to various reasons including the inputs available to him at much lower rates, free electricity and diversification of crops. But, still both the Punjabs are facing the same problems with the centre like the issue of royalty of agricultural produce, their share in the divisible pool, less importance to the agriculture and relying on free market economy thus allowing the culture of multinational companies and so on. However, it is high time that keeping in view the importance of agriculture sector realise the significance of increasing bilateral trade (but with a balance), relaxing the border barriers and removing bureaucratic bottlenecks for easing tension. It is pertinent to mention that as a goodwill gesture an official of the Indian ministry of external affairs suggested that as a confidence building measure (CBM) both the countries should undertake their trade on equal terms i.e. if Pakistan imports items worth 500 million, India should also import some item from Pakistan in same quantity.

[Energon]

About time.

In fact I hope they take it one step further and set up a joint venture to set up a uniform infrastructure for transport, and specialized transport (cold chain, sensitive chemicals/fertilizers etc) to link the entire area to air and sea ports in the region. This IMO will result in a significant increase in productivity.