AN economic official of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) said the private sector plays a critical role in identifying policy gaps among member-countries to ensure sustainable agriculture and food production.
S. Pushpanathan, deputy secretary-general of Asean for Asean Economic Community, said member-countries need to adopt a common policy agenda with inputs from the private sector to ensure that the 600 million people from Asean will not suffer from a food crisis.
“The Asean recognizes that the private sector plays a critical role in food security, identifying gaps in policies and helping governments to promote trade, market access and investment along the whole food value chain,” said Pushpanathan at the conclusion of the Second Asean Food Security Conference in Manila.
He stressed that policy-makers and industry work must work together “to keep the food supply of our region secure, efficient and productive.”
“Asean leaders see food security as a continuous high-priority agenda as we build a people-oriented Asean community,” said Pushpanathan.
The Asean official said soaring global food prices threaten vulnerable people from Asean countries.
Tjada McKenna, deputy assistant administrator of the United State Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Bureau of Food Security, said the two-day meeting discussed measures to improve food security. These include access to modern-production technologies to increase agricultural productivity and access to post-harvest technologies to minimize postharvest losses.
Among the policy recommendations in the forum were: harmonization of agricultural technology risk assessment guidelines, the establishment of an Asean technical working group on risk assessment, and the separation of biosafety from other criteria for risk management decision making; encouraging technology transfer and information sharing regarding alternative agricultural production technologies, respecting the importance of allowing agricultural producers to choose the technologies that best suit their needs;
Launch of an initiative to increase stakeholder awareness of the importance of postharvest losses and develop locally and product-specific customized management strategies to reduce them; development of a common approach to reducing the policy uncertainties that constrain private investment, given the crucial role played by national policy environments in determining market signals, which, in turn, shape private-sector investments in improved grain drying and milling capacity, reduce losses, and lead to higher quality end-products; and
Promotion of strategies to improve rural-market linkages that help cover some of the risk and high transaction costs borne as a result of working with smallholder farmers; provide extension advice, training, and organizational support to farmers using information technology, recognizing that these will increasingly come from the private sector and civil society; and recognize the importance of providing the appropriate enabling environment to encourage private contract farming.
The second food security conference of Asean will be held in Jakarta in September this year.
