• 23 Apr, 2024
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The SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) – South Asia and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), inaugurated a three-day training workshop today on 22 April 2024 titled “Training and Validation Workshop on Modules of Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies in South Asia.” The event, featuring the participation of 22 scientists, researchers, extension workers, and policymakers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, is being held from April 22 to 24, 2024, at BRAC CDM in Gazipur, Bangladesh.

The workshop, organized under the auspices of the ‘Consortium for Scaling-up Climate Smart Agriculture in South Asia (C-SUCSeS)’ of SAARC Agriculture Centre, aimed to address the pressing need for sustainable agricultural practices in the face of climate change. Through presentations, discussions, and practical sessions, participants will refine 10 modules focusing on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies tailored to the specific needs of South Asian countries.

The agricultural sector in South Asia faces significant pressure to adapt to climate change while ensuring food security and livelihoods for a growing population. Extreme weather events and shifting climatic patterns threaten crop yields and livelihoods, necessitating sustainable agricultural practices to enhance resilience and optimize resource usage. Recognizing these challenges, key organizations such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), SAC, IFPRI, and SAARC Development Fund (SDF) formed the ‘Consortium for Scaling-up Climate Smart Agriculture in South Asia (C-SUCSeS)’ in 2021. This consortium aims to promote sustainable and resilient agricultural intensification through evidence-based strategies and capacity-building initiatives.

As part of the C-SUCSeS project, a series of training modules focused on CSA technologies are being developed and tested. These modules will play a crucial role in building the capacity of farmers, researchers, extension workers, and policymakers. This workshop serves as a platform to present and refine these CSA training modules. The main objectives of the training and validation workshops are to present CSA training modules to the experts and participants for fine-tuning and validation of the modules, to enhance the capacity of the SAARC member states responsible for scaling up CSA technologies in respective countries, and to promote regional cooperation through the exchange of knowledge and experiences among the participants of member states

The opening ceremony held on April 22nd was graced by esteemed dignitaries, including Dr. Debasish Sarker, Director General of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), who attended as the chief guest. Presiding over the inaugural ceremony was Dr. Md. Harunur Rashid, Director of SAARC Agriculture Centre, while Ms. Mamata Pradhan, Research Coordinator, IFPRI-, delivered the opening remarks. Concluding the event, Mr. Kinzang Gyeltshen, Regional Programme Coordinator of the C-SUCSeS Project, extended the vote of thanks.

Dr. Debasish Sarker, as chief guest, highlighted the pivotal role of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) in enhancing agricultural systems amidst climate change. Emphasizing its potential for food security and broader development goals, he underscored CSA’s ability to boost productivity, resilience, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Sarker noted the under-recognized yet impactful CSA practices in Bangladesh and stressed the importance of sharing knowledge through workshops like the upcoming training on CSA technologies in South Asia. He reaffirmed their commitment to delivering location-specific, climate-smart solutions for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He said, ‘We are happy that this C-SUCSeS project gives our scientists a platform to do inventory on CSA technologies for Bangladesh and they published An Inventory Report as a good reference document. I am personally very happy that BARI is working on this project and trying to contribute to our national agriculture systems. I would like to give thanks to SAC, IFAD, IFPRI, other teams of SAARC member state countries, and the whole OFRD, BARI team for carrying out such outstanding work under this project. BARI will extend her cooperation for such important future endeavors.

Dr. Md. Harunur Rashid, Director of SAARC Agriculture Centre said ‘We all know that South Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions in terms of climate change impacts. Agricultural production in the region is severely constrained by extreme climate events whose frequency has increased in the past few decades. In light of these challenges, scaling up climate smart agriculture practices has become crucial to enable farming communities to adapt to climate change and enhance their resilience to its effects’.  He also added, ‘several primary obstacles that impede the expansion of climate smart agriculture technologies in South Asia are the lack of access to technology, policy and institutional constraints, and the lack of awareness about CSA at local, provincial, and national levels. To address some of these barriers and strengthen the capacity of Member States, SAC and IFPRI with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute have partnered to organize this important training and validation workshop.’

Dr. Mamata Pradhan said in her remarks “The scale of climate change is large so any adoption or mitigation through CSA can only make a dent if done at scale. Therefore, collective efforts can make a difference for millions of smallholders and enhance regional cooperation in agriculture-climate-food security nexus. And a big component has to be capacity building training at the farm level. So, to make these training programs more effective, IFPRI in collaboration with SAC and the National Focal points has been working on developing Climate-Smart Agriculture Training Manual. ”