Feeding Asia in the 21st century: building urban-rural alliances: summary of the main findings of the international conference on Asian food security held in Singapore on 10–12 August 2011

Abstract

With more than 60% of the world’s population, some of the fastest growing economies and only 37% of the world’s arable land and 36% of the world’s water resources, Asia’s food security challenges are formidable, to say the least. The region is currently home to six of the world’s top ten most populous countries and to half of the world’s urban population. It is thus no wonder that it plays a dominant role in the demand for global food production and inevitably in global food security. However, despite remarkable success in reducing poverty over the years, a strong agricultural sector and vibrant economic growth, pushing some Asian countries to middle income status, Asia still suffers from high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), over 60% of all the undernourished in the world, 578 million out of 925 million, live in this region with an overwhelming share (86%) belonging to middle income countries. The future is similarly disconcerting. Emerging trends occurring globally and regionally are changing the food security landscape in Asia and threatening further its ability to feed itself. Asia’s food security is under significant pressure from a variety of factors that include population growth and urbanisation, increasing affluence, the transformation of the agriculture sector, natural resource constraints, climate change, unsustainable trade practices and high and volatile food and oil prices. Regrettably, the effects of these trends endanger further the hundreds of millions of poor small farms that dominate Asian farming systems and the large number of rural households that depend on them for their existence. Small-holder farmers currently contribute roughly 25% of the overall global food production. However, they also constitute about half of the 1 billion people living in chronic hunger. In order to address the twin aims of poverty reduction and food security in Asia, governments need to urgently prioritise agriculture and make pro-poor investments, particularly if they wish to maintain stability and peace within their borders. With 80% of Asia’s poor still residing in rural areas, significant investments in agriculture R&D, extension services, smallThis report provides the summary of the main findings of the International Conference on Asian Food Security which was convened and organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in Singapore on 10–12 August 2011. The meeting brought together experts from the public, private, civil society and academic sectors. The Conference programme was purposely based around the four basic dimensions of food security: food availability, physical access, economic access and utilisation with the added driver of investment. The aim was to present and examine a broader view of the range of issues involved in ensuring food security in the region, with a particular emphasis on the dependencies between rural and urban environments and to provide policy recommendations. The conference culminated with the ‘ICAFS Statement on Feeding Asia in the 21st Century’, which is summarised at the end of this report.