Big picture overview of challenges and opportunities for achieving food security in Asia
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Transcript of Big picture overview of challenges and opportunities for achieving food security in Asia
Overview of Challenges and Opportunities for Achieving
Food Security in Asia – the Big Picture
Keynote Address
Sohail Jehangir Malik
Chairman, Innovative Development Strategies (Pvt.) Ltd. Pakistan
KNOWLEDGE, TOOLS AND LESSONS FOR INFORMING THE DESIGN AND
IMPLEMENTATION OF FOOD SECURITY STRATEGIES IN ASIA
A TECHNICAL WORKSHOP AND CONFERENCE Kathmandu, Nepal November 14, 2011
Broad Lessons from Asia’s Experience
• Asia’s dramatic poverty reduction in the past was driven by pro-poor economic growth especially in China, India and Southeast Asia.
• Successful Green Revolution, led by high-yielding rice varieties (and wheat in South Asia and north China); – Rice, essentially a small holder crop played a
dominant role in much of East and Southeast Asia (more than half the dietary intake even as diets begin to diversify as incomes increase)
• Massive investments in rural infrastructure, including irrigation; and
• The ready availability of fertilizer.
The region’s agriculture supplied
enough food to satisfy demand and
reduce food insecurity
• Agriculture growth continues to be the
critical challenge
• Continued technological change and
yield growth needed
– Major improvements in land and water use
efficiencies
• However,…………………
attention to Agriculture in Asia is declining
……..
And this is also reflected in flows of aid to agriculture
from major aid donors
Overall Research and Development is a low priority
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China India Malaysia Pakistan Sri Lanka Thailand
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% o
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DP
2000
Four Elements of Food security Food availability - The availability of sufficient quantities of food of appropriate quality, supplied through domestic production or imports, including food aid. Food access - Access by individuals to adequate resources - entitlements -- for acquiring appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Utilization - Utilization of food through adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met. Stability - To be food secure, a population, household or individual must have access to adequate food at all times. Stability is thus needed in both availability and access.
Food Security in the Region is
Under Stress from
• Population growth and demographic
changes
• Changes in food preferences with rising
incomes
• Instability in International Markets - High
and volatile prices
• Land degradation and water constraints
• Climate change and natural disasters
Land and soil degradation
Water scarcity
Asia: The most prone region to
natural disasters 1975-2009
Asia: The Impact of Natural
Disasters 2009
Asia: Intensity and type of Disaster varies across sub-
regions of Asia
Global Food Crises
• On the supply side – Weather-related production shortfalls – Stock levels depletion as demand outstrips supply – Increasing fuel costs that have raised the cost of
agricultural production
• On the demand side – Biofuels and agricultural commodities – Changing structure of household demand.
• Other relevant factors – Operations on financial markets: – Short-term policy actions and exchange rate swings
The Current Global Economic Crisis came
on top of the Food Price Crisis.
This Implies…………………… …………..
• Less capital for agriculture now and in the future
• Higher debt burden for small farmers who already
invested in agriculture expansion
• Policy attention further diverted away from
agriculture leading to lower public investment
• Reduced employment and wages of unskilled
workers
Source: von Braun 2009.
Agriculture and Nutrition
• Agriculture has succeeded in massively increasing the amount of
staple grains produced, but the world still faces serious challenges
related to nutrition:
• The number of hungry people rose from 873 million in 2004–06 to
925 million in 2010.
• About 115 million children are underweight, and 186 million under
age five are stunted.
• Nearly half of the world’s preschool-age children suffer from anemia,
and one-third are deficient in vitamin A.
• Under-nutrition is the underlying cause of nearly one in three deaths
from all diseases in preschool-age children.
• 1.7 billion people are overweight, and 500 million of them are obese.
Two billion+ suffer from micronutrient deficiencies
Iron deficiency anemia • Africa and South Asia have the highest prevalence. • In some parts of India, 90 percent of girls suffer from this deficiency.
Vitamin A deficiency • 163 million are vitamin A deficient in developing countries. • 44.4 percent of children in South Asia alone suffer from this deficiency.
Iodine deficiency • 1.7 billion people worldwide are affected by iodine deficiency, and 1.3 billion of them are in Asia.
Source: UNSCN 6th Report & Bharati et al 2009
26 countries have serious/alarming levels of
hunger (2011 GHI) GHI components:
•Proportion of undernourished
•Prevalence of underweight in children
•Under-five mortality rate
The Decline in Money-metric Poverty in Asia is not reflected in comparable
improvement in child malnutrition – And there is great heterogeneity of
experiences across regions
Population below $1 a day per capita
(ave. exp)
0.0
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40.0
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1990-1994 1995-1999 2000-2004 2005-2010
East & North-East
Asia
South-East Asia
South & South-West
Asia
North & Central Asia
Percentage of children under 5 who
are underweight
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
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Ch
ina
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ilip
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1993-07 2002-06
Perc
ent
Women’s Status in Society - an important determinant of food
security and nutritional security is lowest in South Asia
Agriculture and health – serious risks to both
food producers and food consumers need to be
addressed
• Agriculture is one of the most hazardous of occupations worldwide.
• Health risks include
– microbial and other pollutants from wastewater irrigation,
– exposure to zoonotic pathogens and chemicals like pesticides and
herbicides,
– accidents and exposure to extreme weather events or patterns.
• Three-quarters of emerging diseases are zoonotic in origin.
• In developing countries, 4.5 billion people are chronically exposed to
aflatoxin, a highly carcinogenic natural toxin that is thought to affect 25
percent of the world’s food crops.
Food Security and Climate Change • Climate change affects food production
– Directly: changes in agro-ecological conditions
– Indirectly: changes in econ growth and distribution of incomes,
thus demand for agricultural produce
• Climate change offsets some of the benefits of income growth.
• Broad-based economic development is central to improvements in human well-being, including sustainable food security and resilience to climate change.
• International trade plays an essential role in compensating for various climate change affects
• Properly targeted agricultural productivity investments can mitigate the impacts of climate change and enhance sustainable food security.
* Exceprted from Nelson, Rosegrant, Palazzo et al. 2010. "Food Security, Farming, and Climate Change to 2050: Scenarios, Results, Policy Options“ IFPRI, Washington DC.
1. Understanding the Characteristics of the RNFE 2. Understanding Rural dynamics: what drives
change in the RNFE? Spatial and Sectoral Dynamics?
– Structural transformation – Agricultural growth linkages
• Production, consumption, labor market, investment and spatial
– Other motors of RNF growth • technology, export markets, foreign investment and
globalization
Using the RNFE as an engine of pro-poor growth
Attention is only now being paid to Understanding the role of Rural Non-farm Economy (RNFE) for Poverty Reduction
and Food Security
Exciting Opportunities
• Learning from the diversity of Experience – Replicating and Up-scaling what we know works
• Avoiding what we does not work
• Using this knowledge, and the tools and lessons for informing the design and implementation of Food Security Strategies
Exciting Opportunities The Millions Fed Initiative – Learning from Success
Business as Usual is Not Enough
Fan (2010)
Fill Knowledge Gaps Minimize Harm
Scale Up Innovative Solutions
Create a Cooperative Environment
Way Forward from the IFPRI 2020 Conference:
The Building Blocks
(1) Fill the Knowledge Gaps
Learn how different patterns of agric. growth affect nutrition
• More program evaluation to build up a stronger evidence base about impacts of different strategies and scenarios.
Invest in research, evaluation, education systems that are cross-sectoral
– Universities should encourage multi-disciplinary approaches
Fill gap in governance knowledge at global, national, and community levels
– Maximize synergies using policies, regulations and other tools of governance.
–Promote leadership that galvanizes cross-sectoral collaboration.
(2) Do No Harm
Mitigate health risks posed by agriculture along the value chain
• Better monitoring and assessment of agric. development to identify health hazards and risks.
• Improve production and processing technologies, cost-effective, risk-based technologies that are accessible to small farm holders.
Design health and nutrition interventions that contribute to productivity of agricultural labor
– Examples: Home-based gardens, HIV/AIDS interventions
Examine downstream effects of subsidies for production or consumption on consumers’ nutrition and health
(3) Seek Out and Scale Up Innovative Solutions
Scale up successful interventions
– Learn from case studies at country and project level
Design agriculture, nutrition and health programs with cross-sectoral benefits
Incorporate nutrition into value chain for food production
– Look for opportunities across entire value chain, from food production to post-harvest processing
Use all available levers for change (i.e. economic, social, science and technology, governance)
(4) Create An Environment In Which Cooperation
Can Thrive
Focus on cross-sectoral partnerships
• Eliminate “jargon,” develop a common language
Develop mutual accountability mechanisms
– Encourage transparency and openness, develop clear guidelines for stakeholder responsibility and resource allocation
Correct market failures
– Promote policies that recognize true value- both positive and negative- of different foods, health services and ag. practices.
Use communication and advocacy to bring about change
“DO IT, TRY IT, FIX IT”: NEXT STEPS
Accelerate research to better shape
programs and policies
Raise awareness and interest through
communication strategies
Reach out to potential partners, and build
links and networks
Young Entrepreneurs of Pakistan Program Bringing Umeed (hope) – Linking Youth Groups across regions in
Pakistan with each other and with national and international Knowledge to generate incomes and employment for food security
• Using the existing IT structure and other infrastructure of district level universities across the country for communications, outreach and commerce
• Coordinated and Funded by the Government through a large national social fund - PPAF
• Mobilizing Youth Groups across different regions into young entrepreneurs
• Organizing production, trade and services arising out of agriculture according to the comparative advantage of the region and the youth group
• Facilitating access to resources, technology and know how
• Linking groups with each other for trade and commerce conditional on social responsibility.
• M&E for accountability and lesson learning to ensure replicability and scalability
An initiative under the IFPRI IDS USAID Pakistan Strategy Support Program
Thank you so much for your Attention