DHAKA, Dec 25: The food and disaster management adviser of Bangladesh believes that delay in the process of setting up of a Saarc Food Bank has deprived the country of accessing valuable resources, particularly when the country has been desperately trying to procure food grains in a bid to cope with the post-Sidr crisis.

“In the post-Sidr situation in Bangladesh, we would’ve been greatly benefited if the Saarc food bank was made operational. In fact, the initiative was conceived to face such crises readily and efficiently,” the food and disaster management adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, said on Tuesday.

Bangladesh may have had access to at least 2.41 lakh tons of food aid from the proposed food bank’s stocks, if Saarc’s planned initiative to combat regional food crises had materialised, said Tapan.

“The Saarc member countries have not commissioned their food banks so far,” the adviser said, adding Bangladesh also lags behind in this initiative.

“It hasn’t been possible to commission the food bank as some of the member countries didn’t ratify their commitments as agreed.”

The decision to establish a Saarc food bank was made at the 2007 Saarc conference held in Delhi on April 4, where food ministers signed the charter concerned.

Tapan said as per agreement, the Saarc member nations should be able to get food loans from the envisaged food bank in case of shortages due to natural disasters or otherwise, and return the loaned foods as the situation improves.

“The member countries are meant to raise and maintain the food stocks in their own countries, it was agreed, and send the same to other countries when circumstances warrant.”

India is supposed to hold the largest food stock, according to the agreement, the adviser said, while the newest Saarc member Afghanistan has not yet pledged any such food stock yet.

India’s share was determined to be 1.53 lakh tons, Bangladesh and Pakistan at 40,000 tons each and Sri Lanka and Nepal at 4,000 tons each.

The Maldives agreed to provide 200 tons and Bhutan 180 tons of food grains.

The food ministry officials said the government currently had stocks of 6.2 lakh tons of food grains, whereas, about 19 lakh tons are required to manage the ongoing and envisaged shortages. India, meanwhile, has notified its intention of selling 500,000 tons of food grains to Bangladesh.