Encouraging Home Farming to Improve Trade

Thursday 9th of April 2020

Encouraging Home Farming to Improve Trade

On 8th April, seven countries of South Asia (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India) agreed to look at ways and means to keep up trade flows within the region in a bid to counter the adverse impact that the covid-19 pandemic will have on regional commerce, according to a statement from the Indian foreign ministry.

Trade and commerce officials of these countries held talks over a video link to take stock of the situation following the outbreak of the pandemic that has caused countries to close borders, brought commercial passenger travel to a standstill, caused oil prices to crash and stock markets to plummet.

The global pandemic has caused a huge economic downturn, even in the Maldives where tourism is the main source of income and foreign currency generator. The country had been extremely dependent on tourism industry and also imports. Most food products are imported from other countries but does Maldives actually lack the capacity produce them?

There are several agricultural products that can be grown in the country. In order to be more self-sufficient government is encouraging the public to invest their money and time on farming and they have taken several measures to assist the public to do so. For instance, Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resource, and Agriculture released a video on problems farmers face when farming papaya, cabbage, chilli, and banana.