Hyderabad, India
January 5, 2006
T.
V. Padma, SciDev.Net
Scientists have urged South Asian nations to cooperate to boost
their economies by tapping growing global demand for
agricultural products such as herbal medicines that are derived
from biological resources and traditional knowledge.
The initial call came from Swiss Nobel laureate Richard Ernst,
who suggested a South Asian Union, modelled on the European
Union. It would promote peaceful interaction and scientific
cooperation between member countries, while maintaining the
region's distinct cultural and economic identity.
Ernst, who
won the 1991 Nobel Prize for chemistry, suggested the move
yesterday at the Indian Science Congress in Hyderabad.
Later at the congress, a panel discussion on global science and
rural development in South Asia highlighted the need for the
region's countries to jointly address development problems using
science.
More than a billion people in South Asia earn less than US$1 a
day, are malnourished and have no access to safe water, basic
sanitation, shelter and literacy.
Using technology to transform agriculture and create jobs is the
key to progress, stressed both M. E. Tusneem, chair of the
Pakistan Agriculture Research Council,
and Mangala Rai, director general of the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
They pointed to the need for increased agricultural research and
more partnerships, both between South Asian nations and between
them and international agricultural research councils, the
UN Food and Agriculture
Organization and the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR).
Tusneem told SciDev.Net that despite scope for scientific
collaboration under the aegis of the
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC), progress on agricultural and rural development has been
too slow.
Nations could collaborate on disease and pest resistance;
drought and salt tolerance; gene banks; improved seed
production; post-harvest management; and efficient water use.
SAARC countries would perform well
in the key sectors of biotechnology and herbal medicines,
suggested Palpu Pushpangadan, director of India's
National Botanical Research Institute
in Lucknow.
"Biodiversity and traditional knowledge are two of the region's
capital assets", he said. "We have tapped only a fraction of our
vast library of genes and traditional knowledge."
The region has a great variety of ornamental, medicinal,
aromatic, as well as gum, resin and dye-yielding plants.
Pushpangadan said there was renewed global interest in natural
products, especially herbal medicines.
He
said there was a need to improve processing capacity to add
value to economically important plants at the farm level and get
the finished products to global markets.
"We
[South Asia] have entered the 21st century with both the bullock
cart and jet. We now need to build the correct bridges and links
to advance," he observed.
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South Asia to set up disease and disaster centres
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Bangladesh seeks global market for its medicinal plants
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Digital library to protect indigenous knowledge
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More scientific dialogue ahead for India and Pakistan |