No Time for Complacency in Asias Food Security Challenge
Summary
It identifies two major threats to food security: the long slowing in Asian wheat and rice productivity growth due to falling investment in agriculture, and the effects of climate change.“Further high volatility in food prices is likely unless there is a significant response from governments, development institutions and the private sector to markedly increase agricultural productivity across Asia,” says Independent Evaluation’s director-general Vinod Thomas.Volatile food prices not only threaten Asia’s dramatic progress in reducing poverty, but add impetus to concerns over rising inequality in the region at a time when achieving inclusive growth has become a cornerstone of national development plans in many emerging countries.But these are not grounds for complacency, warns the Asian Development Bank’s Independent Evaluation Department.Its study, Food Security Challenges in Asia, takes stock of the vulnerabilities that caused the crisis and their implications.“This is a pressing issue for today, not a distant threat, and needs to be addressed as part of a country’s overall climate strategy integrating adaptation and mitigation,” says Brubaker.Evidence from research, ranging from studies conducted in large geographical areas to the household level, compellingly argues that climate change affects agriculture in a wide range of economies, crops and farming systems over and above the dramatic effects of floods and droughts.“It is becoming increasingly evident that measures to adapt to climate change—first and foremost through adaptation of farming systems and rural communities—will be fundamental to long-run efforts to ensure food security at both the national and household levels,” says the study.Volatile food prices not only threaten Asia’s dramatic progress in reducing poverty, but add impetus to concerns over rising inequality in the region at a time when achieving inclusive growth has become a cornerstone of national development plans in many emerging countries.Despite rapid economic growth, Asia remains home to 67% of the world’s hungry, some 552 million people, and more than 900 million who subsist on less than $1.25 a day.Says Thomas, “This raises the question of whether government food policies need rethinking in a less secure world facing the dilemma of high food prices hurting consumers in the short run, but low prices not providing an incentive for farmers to increase productivity.”“At the end of the day, while recognizing the merits of open trade at the global level, the study recommends getting country policy choices right.