Building Food Security And Managing Risk In Southeast Asia

This report explores effective policy solutions to the current and future challenges related to food security in the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). While robust GDP growth, rising agricultural productivity and output, and strong growth in agricultural incomes ...

This synthesis report is the result of close, collaborative research initiated by the Asian Development Bank in partnership with Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada; the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation; and the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia. Fourteen background papers were commissioned to investigate food security issues particularly pertinent for Asia and the Pacific. The report synthesizes and collates the primary findings from these papers to articulate key policy challenges and opportunities related to food security in the region.

Trusting Trade and the Private Sector for Food Security in Southeast Asia challenges policy makers who oversee the rice sector in Southeast Asia and reexamines deep-rooted precepts about their responsibilities. The authors argue that fixating on national self-sufficiency has been costly and counterproductive, and cooperation can both improve rice production at home and expand regional trade. Trusting Trade specifically examines private sector participation in the rice and (yellow) maize markets in five countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The study identifies both the private sector's potential role in providing greater regional food security and feasible ways to strengthen public and private sector cooperation in managing regional food supply chains. Trusting Trade also examines actionable ways to deepen and strengthen regional markets that support trade in food staples. The study's recommendations are meant to be implemented primarily through new forms of partnerships between the public and private sectors. Trusting Trade will be of interest to policy makers in the ASEAN member states and its development partners as well as others interested in food security, supply chains, and trade in Southeast Asia.

This book presents a study of perceptions of food insecurity in East Asia, and explores how individual countries are developing strategies to deal with the situation. It also looks at how the perception of food insecurity has increasingly influenced the nature of international interactions, not just within East Asia, but also in the region’s relations with major external actors. Many of the challenges facing East Asia are generic food security issues that face people and governments across the world – for example, the implications of climate change and demographic changes on food supplies. This book places the East Asian context in the wider discussion of food (in)security in global politics. However, it also identifies potential regional ‘differences’ – for example, the significance of rice for the region, and the unavoidable impact of China as a major regional player. What the Chinese state, and Chinese companies, decide to do in response to concerns about food insecurity have an impact not just on the rest of the region, but on the rest of the world. Taking too much of a Sinocentric focus, however, ignores other actors in East Asia, or merely relegates discussion to how they respond to Chinese policies or external strategies. This book considers the region as a whole, both when it comes to thinking about food security challenges and responses within the region itself, and also in the outward projection of regional food insecurity on the rest of the world. This book was published as a special issue of The Pacific Review.

Food security is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The food price crisis of 2008 exposed the vulnerabilities of the global food system. Governments across Asia acerbated the crisis by imposing export restrictions based on a policy of self-sufficiency. This book assesses whether self-sufficiency is an adequate response to the food security challenges we face. Pricing volatility drives isolationism at a time when climate change and increasingly uncertain weather patterns make it difficult for any single nation to guarantee adequate food production for itself. Through a collection of commissioned studies which draw upon the experience of leading experts and scholars in trade, investment, law, economics, and food policy, this book analyses the impact of this trend on the most essential crop in the Asian region - rice. It suggests that food security policy should be reconceptualised: from the national to the regional and even the global level. It also provides its own proposals as to how this new paradigm of collective food security should be understood and developed. The book calls for a new conversation in the region, acknowledging that the challenges we face are global and the solutions must be found in collective action. This state-of-the-art study will appeal to lawyers, economists and political scientists, as well as food security specialists by providing expert analyses and enlightening solutions for the future.

Asia is not only the largest producer of important food items like rice and vegetable oil, but also the largest importer of commodities like soybeans and corn. Additionally, more than half the world's population lives in Asia and thus the largest number of food insecure people are also in Asia. Food security is therefore a matter of paramount importance in Asia.This is the only book of its kind that will explore the range of important issues affecting food security in Asia since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Highlights include discussions on the current state of production on food of vital importance to Asia such as rice, vegetable and fish, as well as information on their future trends in production and consumption. Two case studies are presented on how the two most populous countries in Asia — China and India — have tackled their food security. Topics which are an integral part of food security and not often addressed in a food security book include nutrition security, novel foods and food waste valorization. This is also the only book about Asian food security which will include specific chapters on the technologies that are likely to determine the future of food security in Asia, as exemplified by digital technology, biotechnology, physical technology like recirculating aquaculture systems, nutrition enhancing technology, and urban agriculture.Organized into four themes, the issues captured here are of special importance to Asian decision makers in policy, research, development, investment and education in the 'new normal' post-pandemic. As Asia is inextricably linked to the global food and trading systems, Food Security Issues in Asia will also be of interest to those outside the Asian region who need to understand Asian food security.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book evaluates the complex nexus between climate change and regional food security in Asia Pacific. Feeding the planet puts a lot of stress on the environment. The fundamental challenges we are facing today include how to grow more from less in a sustainable manner; how to optimize the entire food value chain from field to fork to reduce the carbon footprint, protect the environment and support biological diversity, cause less water pollution and soil erosion, raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy. With a robust multi-site study in Southeast Asia, Pacific Island Forum and South Asia, this book examines the regional initiatives on, the current state of, and the future prospects for mitigations and resilience regarding climate change and food security vis-à-vis other regions of the world.

Research on women and food security in Southeast Asia has been limited. The collection of chapters in Ensuring a Square Meal: Women and Food Security in Southeast Asia is one of the first attempts at providing a lens into the linkages between women and food security at the household, community, national, and transnational levels. More broadly, the chapters examine women's contribution in households, resource distribution to produce food, and the purchasing power to buy food. In analysing the various facets of food security in relation to gender, the analyses focus on the meanings of 'private' and 'public', and the extent to which the effects of the two spheres spill over into each other. Given women's critical role in food production and provision, the book assesses the structural forces enabling women to access productive resources and, in turn, ensure sustainable strategies for food security; as well as it evaluates how governments might address the constraints women face in this vital role.