On 30 April, Suriname’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (LVV) Mike Noersalim held a high-level meeting with Pakistani Ambassador to Suriname Murad Ashraf Janjua, where the two sides agreed to build a bilateral agricultural partnership centered on knowledge sharing and joint research to address common challenges facing their farming sectors.
Both South American Suriname and South Asian Pakistan confront overlapping pressing issues in agriculture: the growing negative impacts of climate change on crop yields and farming stability, paired with a sharp decline in young people’s interest in pursuing careers in the agricultural sector. Recognizing these shared obstacles, the two governments have committed to collaborating on targeted, practical solutions, rather than working in isolation.
A core focus of the new partnership will be basmati rice, a long-grain aromatic variety globally renowned for its quality and flavor. Pakistan has decades of advanced experience cultivating basmati rice, and holds globally recognized elite varieties of the crop. Currently, Suriname meets all domestic demand for basmati rice through imports, with no local commercial production of the grain. Under the new cooperation framework, the two sides will explore opportunities to launch local basmati cultivation in Suriname, drawing on Pakistani expertise.
Knowledge sharing will also extend to high-quality seed development, a critical foundation for stable, high-yield agriculture. Pakistan’s agricultural research institutions will partner with Suriname’s Anne van Dijk Rice Research Center Nickerie (Adron) to transfer technical know-how for improved basmati seed production, helping Suriname build local capacity to develop its own high-quality basmati seed stock.
Organic agriculture is another key area for mutual learning. Pakistan has placed significant strategic priority on expanding organic food production, which is grown without synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and is widely seen as a healthier, more environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional farming. For its part, Suriname already produces 100% organic upland rice, a disease-resistant variety that has been cultivated locally for decades. The Surinamese government recently launched an initiative to scale up production of this organic rice to meet growing global demand for organic agricultural goods, and the two sides exchanged insights on organic sector development during the meeting.
Beyond technical agricultural cooperation, the talks also explored broader economic opportunities within the framework of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Suriname’s regional trade bloc. The two sides discussed the potential for Pakistani private companies to enter the Caricom market through public-private partnership (PPP) models with local Surinamese businesses, opening new trade and investment pathways for both sides.
Following the meeting, Minister Noersalim highlighted that the discussion laid a clear foundation for future collaboration, noting that both sides exchanged open insights on their respective sector experiences and priorities. While market access opportunities within Caricom were explored, Noersalim emphasized that knowledge transfer and joint agricultural research remain the central pillars of the new bilateral partnership.
This cooperation marks a new chapter in agricultural diplomacy between the two nations, bringing together complementary strengths to address shared global challenges in food security and sustainable farming.