We, members of civil society organizations from across Asia and the Pacific, are gravely concerned about the current state of food and agriculture in the region. We are equally concerned that the SOFA report is locked in to an old, failed narrative --- that the way out of poverty for smallholder farmers is to increase labor productivity in agribusiness and integrate them in the value chains for urban consumers and international markets.

The report focuses on increasing farm income through increased production and adoption of new technologies. But this is simply a repeat of the modernization of farming systems, which pushed farmers to adopt new technologies and abandon their traditional practices; while associated policy choices favored large-scale agriculture or industrialization of agriculture. Evidence has shown us that this system of agricultural production has failed and is now blamed for the significant contribution of agriculture to greenhouse gas emission that causes climate change.

It espouses a shift to agribusiness, liberalization and aggressive global trade, arguing that these would create more non-farm sources of income to make way for rural development. But these do not ensure sustainable use of resources and food security and only further exploit the earth’s resources. The foundational narrative that accepts the loss of smallholders from traditional agriculture and supports a shift into contract farming for corporate agribusiness will inevitably lead to more incidence of disease and pandemics such as we are currently experiencing. With the associated rise of animal diseases from intensive livestock production like African Swine Fever (ASF), increased production is lost as animals are culled and there is a consequent loss of food security and rural livelihoods. One Health is being integrated into FAO work but is absent from these papers

The SOFA Report failed to draft a regional strategy that would address several far more critical issues such as aging population of farmers; increasing migration of young people and urbanization; landlessness; marginalization of women; food insecurity; malnutrition; and sustainability of the earth’s resources.

The current global health crisis caused by a highly contagious virus most likely caused by industrialised agriculture’s incursions into ever more remote forests proves once again that a highly industrialized food production system endangers the entire humanity. The pandemic has fomented an economic crisis, and exposed the underlying risks, fragilities, and inequities in our food systems.

The time to act on this issue was years ago. But because of the strong influence of capitalists pushing for industrialized agriculture, indigenous and smallholder communities and their sustainable systems of food production have been marginalized and neglected. Yet, indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers have proven that sustainable food production systems are more resilient and healthier for both humans and the environment. Traditional foods, particularly neglected and underutilized plant species present in local landscapes are known to be of high nutritional value. These are the kind of foods that can help strengthen the immune system, a condition that is much needed to help fight this pandemic, not the ultra-processed foods produced by industrial agriculture.

The highlight of the SOFA report should have been the need for reforms in the food system which include acknowledgement and promotion of the diversification and sustainability of production systems. These can be achieved through the domestication, cultivation, or integrated management of a much wider set of locally- important species for the development of a wide range of marketable natural products which can generate income for the rural and urban resource poor – as well as provide ecosystem services such as soil/water conservation.

We need a radical transformation of agriculture from being a contributor to a solver of problems such as climate change, public health, environmental degradation, loss of farmers and rural to urban migration, and the need for a radical reset towards sustainability in all three dimensions, i.e. environmental, social, and economic.