Summit Uncertainty

THAT Pakistan on Monday announced a postponement of the 12th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit comes as an unfortunate development for the regional body. It is not the first time that a SAARC summit has been postponed, though. In seventeen years of its existence, only 11 summits have taken place-a telling fact that SAARC top leaders have not been able to come together every year as is envisaged by the body when its charter was framed in 1985. The postponement of the Islamabad summit is nonetheless even more surprising in that for the first time in the history of SAARC a tentative time for the next summit was decided by a summit itself: the 11th SAARC summit, held in Kathmandu early this year, had decided to hold the next summit in mid-January 2003 in Pakistan. In announcing the postponement, Pakistan has said that because of the little time left to make formal preparations and the continued Indian refusal to confirm its participation, it was not in a position to hold the summit slated for January 11-13. India, on its part, had earlier been saying that it would not attend the summit unless important regional trade pacts such as the SAPTA and SAFTA were implemented effectively in the region. Whatever the reasons for the postponement, Nepal, is understandably disappointed at the turn of events. As a Nepalese foreign ministry source told this paper, Nepal hoped that the setback was temporary.

There is some consolation in the Pakistani foreign ministry's assurance that the host nation would set up new date for the summit after having consultations with the member nations. Nepal, as the current chairman, must try to make all efforts to get India and Pakistan sort out their differences. SAARC must not be held hostage to any divergence of views between any two countries in the grouping. Though there may be legitimate criticisms against SAARC for its tardy pace in tackling the most urgent issues facing the over one billion people in the region, making SAARC work is even more important than ever before. As Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand told the 18th SAARC Charter Day function on Monday, the challenges brought about the recent developments in the international arena can be best coped with through a more integrative regional approach. He pointed out that there has been ever more consolidation of regional economic groupings in the last decade. Indeed, regionalism pays, as it has shown elsewhere in the world. As summits provide a mechanism to boost SAARC activities, the uncertainty over the next summit must end as soon as possible.

Sweet Taste Of Honey

HONEY produced by the farmers of Chitwan district by, as per a news item carried by this daily the other day, grazing bees in various kinds of fruit trees, oil-producing crops and cereals like mango, lichi, peach, mustard oil, linseed, buckwheat, is becoming popular throughout the world. If what the report is saying is true, then it is indeed a heartening piece of news. As all, including the concerned authorities, know by now, the vast majority of the nation's population is comprised of farmers who, due to their small farm holdings coupled with obsolete farming techniques, are always having a hard time to make ends meet from their yearly harvests. It is for this very reason that the majority of the nation's farmers are reported to be living in poverty and want. As such, if these poor farmers' living conditions were to be improved, development experts, planners and the concerned authorities have long realised that these same sons of the soil have to be availed with income generation schemes. While the need for the development experts and planners to renew their efforts to chalk out and implement more such schemes could be seen from the large number of poor farmers in their midst, the very fact that some of their schemes are managing to assist these poor farmers to augment their low incomes should also be duly noted. Amongst such successful income generation schemes, bee-keeping is definitely one. One likely reason for the farmers' enthusiasm to take to this scheme could be that it still gives them time to engage in their main profession, farming.

It's not that bee-keeping is a novel activity to the people in general and farmers in particular. From ancient times, they knew how to keep bees in hives that range from hallowed tree trunks to even holes in their houses for their honey. To the people, honey, till date, not only holds religious significance but also medicinal value as it is still used in concocting indigenous medicines for a host of aliments. However, it was only with the introduction of modern bee-keeping schemes and techniques by the concerned authorities to uplift the small farmers' low socio-economic status that bee-keeping took off as a commercial enterprise. Now that Nepal's honey is gaining markets abroad, the concerned authorities need to come up with further initiatives to assist this successful poverty alleviation scheme to remain commercially profitable and sustainable.