Driving Asian food security amid Covid, climate change and conflict

WE HAVE grown accustomed to Asia being a global leader in a host of categories, including innovative technologies and digital transformation. Sadly, our region also has the dire distinction of leading the world in another area entirely: being home to the most hungry people.

According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 (Sofi) report issued earlier this year by the United Nations (UN), the number of people in Asia affected by hunger rose last year to 425 million, up from 418 million, making the region top of this most disconcerting category. This has been a rising trend, up from 398 million in 2020 and 340 million in 2019.

In Asia and around the world, we’re simply not making progress on reducing hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity. In many instances, we’re actually losing ground. According to the Sofi report, 8 per cent of the world’s population – or 670 million people – will be facing hunger at the end of the decade. That’s the same number of people that were facing hunger in 2015, the year the UN first introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a road map to ending extreme poverty and hunger.

Why is this happening? Myriad problems continue to plague food systems, but three harsh realities have created particularly strong headwinds in recent years: Covid-19, conflict, and climate change.

The global pandemic caused unforeseen disruption to food systems around the world. Through movement restrictions, border lockdowns and similar policies understandably instituted to stop Covid’s spread, the pandemic exposed the fragility of our food supply chain by both exacerbating existing challenges and creating new ones.

Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year and the ongoing war have severely disrupted the flow of essential foods, causing global food prices to skyrocket. Before the war, Ukraine and Russia together supplied roughly 30 per cent of the world’s wheat and barley – much of it to populations who are among the most vulnerable to food insecurity. Just last month, UN World Food Programme chief David Beasley noted that citizens in 82 countries are now acutely food insecure and effectively “marching towards starvation”.

As devastating as these drivers of food insecurity have been, their trajectory is finite. Climate change is another matter.

Our region is on the frontlines of climate change. Average temperatures across South-east Asia specifically have risen every decade since 1960. Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar are among the 20 countries most affected globally by climate change over the past two decades.

Earlier this year, Asean and CropLife Asia partnered to conduct the Policymaker Survey: Climate Change Impact on Asean Agriculture. The research, led by global market research firm PSB Insights, aimed to gain a greater understanding of how climate change is affecting regional food systems through the perspectives and insights of Asean policymakers.

One key finding was that more than half of Asean policymakers cited climate change as the biggest obstacle facing regional food systems. Additionally, 60 per cent felt South-east Asia’s farmers are the most negatively affected by the impact of climate change on food productivity or security.

It’s hard to argue with Asean policymakers citing our farmers as being the most vulnerable. Asia is home to the world’s smallest-sized farms and largest number of smallholder farmers, generally defined as those with fewer than two hectares of land. Roughly 100 million of these smallholders are in South-east Asia and face a variety of challenges, including availability of finance, landholder rights issues, access to technology, and labour shortages.

Climate change is taking a devastating toll on our region’s smallholders. Most obviously, the changing weather patterns are driving disruption and uncertainty with planting and harvesting seasons. Beyond that, increased droughts, floods and extreme weather events are creating an increasingly challenging landscape for these growers, with the spread of more pests, weeds, and diseases; loss of biodiversity; direct damage to soil quality, including rising salinity; and exacerbated water scarcity issues.

All of this hurts smallholder farmer yields, livelihoods, and ultimately, food security in our region.

Another finding of the survey was that policymakers expect the public and private sectors to work together to address the impacts of climate change, protect food systems in the region, and increase access to as well as education around innovation in agricultural technology and science.

Partnership across the food value chain to make regional food systems more resilient is crucial; in the face of growing challenges and consequences, it’s an absolute must.

Technology is playing an increasingly critical and transformative role in food production and security.

Digital technologies such as soil sensors and satellites are being used to pre-emptively diagnose and treat crop threats before they take hold. Data analysis and GPS tracking technologies are improving seed shipping routes and reducing transit times. The use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles for pesticide application is growing in popularity across Asia due to its advantages: efficiency in the use of inputs; enhanced spray precision; reduced water consumption; and less dependence on labour.

Meanwhile, plant science innovations are an essential tool in the drive to greater food security. This includes the development of pesticides or crop protection products that are less toxic, more efficient, and increasingly “greener”, while remaining effective. Without the use of pesticides, roughly 40 per cent of global rice and corn harvests would be lost every year.

Biotech or genetically modified (GM) crops have been developed with improved traits such as increased yield, better resistance to pests, improved nutritional value, and greater drought tolerance. At the same time, GM crops have enabled farmers to be more efficient with the application of pesticides, thus reducing their environmental impact as well as saving time and money.

Unfortunately, many of the latest technologies for food security never reach the hands of Asia’s smallholder farmers due to a lack of national regulations to help ensure access and responsible use.

With rising food insecurity this World Food Day – Oct 16 – in the wake of Covid-19, conflict and climate change, the stakes are extremely high. It’s time for stronger partnership and collaboration among the private sector, governments, civil society, and the entire regional food value chain to ensure smallholders have the tools and resources they need to grow more safe, affordable and nutritious food sustainably.

The writer is executive director of CropLife Asia.