Japan appreciates the FAO's analysis of the current state and outlook of food security and nutrition in the Asia-Pacific region amid rising multidimensional risks such as the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts that have significantly affected member countries.

We emphasize the importance of utilizing and strengthening neutral and fair statistical information from international organizations, including FAO. In this regard, we expect FAO to play a core role in enhancing transparency in agricultural markets through platforms such as the Agricultural Market Information Systems (AMIS) and in urging member countries to provide timely, adequate, up-to-date, and complete data.

We must not forget the lessons learned from the historic soar of prices for food, agricultural inputs, and energy in 2022, which caused export restrictions on food and fertilizers by several countries, resulting in a food security crisis with consequences on food access, especially for the most vulnerable people.

As highlighted in the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2023-2032, we should note that export restrictions are amplifying price uncertainties and can push prices further up so that they have a negative impact on global food security in the short-term and undermine supply capacity and have impacts on global food supply and demand in the long-term. Although this point has not received much attention, relevant analysis is underway. We expect FAO to promote inclusive and updated analysis of the long-term adverse effects of export restrictions on supply capacity further and on necessary indicators for global food security.

In recent years, the UN system has seen an increasing number of issues related to agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and the environment in international environmental policy discussions, including climate change, biodiversity, and plastic. In this context, to balance improving food security and addressing environmental challenges, it is essential to reflect the realities of each country’s diverse agriculture, forestry, and fishery situations.

The Philippines would like to thank FAO for its overview and analysis of the food security situation and outlook in the world and in the region in document APRC 24/3 and we would like
to offer the following comments and recommendations:

1. It is indeed regrettable that the food security situation in Asia and Pacific countries is deteriorating compared with the situation before the COVID-19 pandemic. We agree that there is an urgent need to work together to address the main drivers of undernourishment and food insecurity in the world because of their impact on food supply and demand: conflicts and geopolitical tensions, extreme and more frequent climatic events, economic slowdowns and downturns, and persistent inequalities.
2. We, therefore, greatly appreciate FAO's statistical analyses on global and regional food and agriculture supply and demand situation and outlook, its analyses and close monitoring of food security, the results of which are extremely helpful to countries including the Philippines in the identification and formulation of appropriate domestic policies and interventions as relevant responses to emerging situations.
3. In this regard, we reiterate that we welcome the support and cooperation of FAO in improving the capacities of governments to generate/collect up-to-date and complete data and information not only to improve and enrich our own statistical system but also that of FAO which compiles country data and information for its assessments and analyses of food security situation around the world. The generation and collection of more granulated data could provide a more accurate picture of food situation outlook as well as more detailed explanation of emerging issues.
4. The FAO document identified that the main challenges facing the region relate to its ability to sustainably increase productivity and innovation, particularly in the face of resource limitations, climate change risks, and the region’s growing population. A growing resource threat is related to water resources that are reaching critically low levels in many parts of the region. Among the major threats specific to meat production are animal diseases such as African swine fever and avian influenza. We, therefore, take this opportunity to reiterate the recommendations of APRC 36 expressed two years ago for FAO to intensify efforts to prioritize promotion of agrifood system transformation to make improvements in the areas of sustainable and climate resilient agriculture, uptake of agricultural technologies, market access and trade and sustainable natural resource management.
5. The Philippines would also welcome support from FAO as the Philippines builds its capacity in foresight and the development of a foresight framework suited for agriculture, aquatic and natural resources sector to better understand the driving forces that impact agrifood systems in the country, in identifying future-oriented technologies, in guiding design of future-driven research and development, and in strategically planning for the country's agrifood system. One foresight initiative that has been done in the Philippines with one of our national agencies - the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)- is the collaboration between the DOSTPCAARRD (Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development), the Center for Engaged Foresight, the Asian Institute of Management and the USAID-STRIDE (US Agency for International Development - Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for Development) project.

FAO would like to thank The Philippines for comments and words of appreciations.

It welcomes the emphasis put on the need for FAO to receive more granular data from countries: The lack of granular data is in fact one of the most urgent limiting factors to the efforts of providing a more accurate picture of the food security situation. 

AUSTRALIA

Australia is deeply concerned by the trends in Asia and the Pacific region regarding the lack of progress towards combatting global food insecurity. At this halfway mark of the SDG timeline, our collective ability to achieve SDG2 remains distant if we do not redouble and better target our efforts.

It is clear that current policies and programs designed to alleviate nutritional inequities and hunger are falling short. The proportion of the population affected by hunger in Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) increased from 19.8 percent in 2021 to 20.9 percent in 2022. We note with concern the high prevalence of undernourishment in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, and the high prevalence (over 40 percent) in Kiribati of moderate or severe food insecurity.

Supply chain issues are being felt across the region but are particularly evident in net-food importers in the Pacific. In 2021, the average cost of a healthy diet in Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) had increased by 5.2 percent from 2017 in PPP terms, with high retail food prices particularly problematic in net-food-importing developing countries.

These are all sobering statistics. At the same time we highlight the significant data gaps in the Pacific that continue to act as a major impediment to full and accurate analysis, reporting and forecasting. Whilst Australia is pleased to note more disaggregated reporting on the Pacific in this report (compared to SOFI), we recommend FAO work to address data gaps and limitations in the Pacific, including through support and capacity building for enhanced data collection and analysis. Such efforts can result in the production of disaggregated reporting to identify subregional and country level variations and priorities.

We further note that due to the relatively small populations in the Pacific, the presentation of aggregate (i.e. numbers of people) figures risks minimising the scale of food insecurity, and food affordability in low population areas. We recommend that future analysis and reports also include proportional analysis where available.

Australia also highlights the logistical challenges and foundering agricultural production stemming from geopolitical conflicts around the world are impacting global food markets and seriously exacerbating food insecurity, particularly in our most vulnerable populations. Speedy and just resolutions to these conflicts will have a marked impact on improving global hunger, and it is our responsibility in the global community to work towards peaceful solutions.

Australia further notes that the disruptions to key nodes of the global trade network are constricting food transport and availability. We recommend that FAO continue to monitor and report to Members on these ongoing logistical challenges together with their implications for trade and food security.

The paper notes (paragraph 27) that policy uncertainties, particularly export restrictions, significantly impact the availability and affordability of essential nutrition in vulnerable countries. Barriers to open trade of agricultural commodities actively undermines our shared goal towards increasing the availability of nutritious food globally.

While the paper states that agricultural trade has proved resilient after COVID and is projected to grow in line with production over the next decade, such resilience cannot be taken for granted: the rules-based global trade system has facilitated economic recovery following the pandemic slowdown. Australia emphasises the role of transparent, predictable, open and fair markets, underpinned by an effective multilateral trading system, as a key element in achieving global food security.

Australia also emphasises the interlinkages between climate change and food insecurity. Climate change can dramatically affect every part of the food production system. The Pacific region is particularly at threat from changing weather patterns. We encourage FAO to invest further resources towards climate adaptation in the Pacific in its efforts to support sustainable and resilient agriculture to address food insecurity.

The paper notes that growth in agricultural consumption is forecast to increase by 1.3 percent whereas agricultural production is forecast to grow by only 1.1 percent, over the period to 2030. This shortfall demonstrates the need for FAO to work with all Members on measures to sustainably improve productivity.

Australia underscores the opportunities to repurpose environmentally harmful and trade distorting agricultural support and subsidies, which were at record levels in 2023, towards policies, and research and development into innovations that promote sustainable agriculture and productivity growth. Such reforms can serve to reduce pressure on natural resources, break the cycle of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition, and deliver safe and nutritious food for current and future generations.

Finally, we emphasise the role of effective water resource management (in line with FAO’s biennial theme 2024‑25) in addressing food security and we call upon FAO to continue, and expand, its efforts to work with and support Members in addressing the many and varied water challenges that exist in Asia and the Pacific region.

FAO is grateful to Australia for raising these points.

FAO notes the importance of communicating proportional analyses and observes that prevalences (proportions of the population) are already reported for all the food insecurity indicators in the document for which it is relevant, and for the countries for which sufficient data is available to produce reliable estimates.

The total number of food insecure people in the region is estimated by taking into account total population, including that of countries for which data are not available, implicitly assuming a prevalence equal to the average of the prevalence estimated for the other countries in the same subregion.

We acknowledge that this is only an approximation, and that there is still an urgent need to fill data gaps, especially in the South-West Pacific subregion and we hope to get support from all members and the donor community to help us fill these data gaps.

FAO highlights that it will continue to monitor developments in the shipping and transportation sector, including current and emerging bottlenecks, and to incorporate such analysis in its regular monitoring work.

New Zealand appreciates the paper and the analysis provided on the current state of food and agriculture in the Asia Pacific region.  We strongly support the important role that FAO has in providing this global and regional analysis on the state of food and agriculture to ensure evidence based decision making by global players and at a regional and national level.  To this end, a strong and consistent message from New Zealand throughout this Conference and in other key FAO forums is the importance of robust and relevant data to inform sound decision-making.  The South West Pacific (SWP) is an extremely challenging region and we seek transparency on the status of the data in the region that sits behind this report.  We need to know where data is sparse, outdated and or just not available and that the absence of robust data is an essential part of the picture that must be made transparent.

New Zealand is deeply concerned that the proportion of the population affected by hunger has increased in Oceania and, when New Zealand and Australia are taken out of the statistics, from 19.8% to 20.9% from 2021 – 2022.   If this is based on robust data this is of concern to the region and should be for FAO as well.  We note that PNG and Solomon Islands have been identified with high prevalence of undernourishment in the region and ask if the data exists for other Pacific countries to confirm their status?

We note with concern that Kiribati has a prevalence of 40% of moderate or severe food insecurity – a country that as an atoll is the most affected by climate change with disappearing land to the rising oceans making it even more challenging to consider feasible ways to increase local production. We are unclear if other atolls or SIDS in the SWP are in a similar position or if there is no data to substantiate the situation and seek clarification from FAO.

New Zealand reinforces the importance of trade to support the region both in terms of access to foods to support healthy diets for those reliant on food imports and support to enhance sustainable production and trading opportunities for those exporting food. We reiterate the importance of the global rules based trading system as critical in supporting global food security and reinforce the important role that FAO has in promoting trade.  This includes supporting the development of science based global food standards that are at the core of the technical work of FAO. Codex Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) are critical to supporting the region with global standards to support food safety and fair trade – essential for improving food security.

As noted in the report on the State of food and Agriculture in the region, the main challenges facing the region relate to its ability to sustainably increase productivity and innovation, particularly in the face of resource limitation, climate change risks, and the region’s growing population.  For New Zealand where food production is central to our economy and we export 90% of the food we produce, a focus on sustainability and innovation, based on scientific evidence, is critical to support increased food production to support growing global needs. New Zealand has supported and continues to support research on innovative ways to increase food production in a sustainable way.  Science and innovation are central to future improvements in food and agriculture in the region and should be a key feature in leading future decisions.

We note that where there are already effective global initiatives, such as the Global Research Alliance, which brings together scientists and agricultural experts from around the world to collaborate in research aimed at lowering the greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural production systems and growing more food without growing emissions.  Such existing effective initiatives should be promoted by FAO and supported at a regional and country level as appropriate.  Such initiatives play an important role in assisting informed decision making in supporting sustainable agriculture and improving food security.

We also note that the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all, develops and endorses policy recommendations and guidance on a wide range of food security and nutrition topics that can play an important part in improving food security in the region.

FAO is grateful to New Zealand for raising these points and looks forward to work together to fill the highlighted data gaps.

Regarding the food insecurity estimates for Kiribati, FAO clarifies that the food insecurity estimates are based on the 2019/20 KHIES (Kiribati Household Income and Expenditure Survey), and that the published estimates have been extensively discussed and approved by the government.

While it is true that moderate to severe food insecurity is particularly high compared to the other countries in the region, pointing to low access to quality and varied food, the prevalence of severe food insecurity is in line with the prevalence of undernourishment (12.1% in 2020-22).  As estimates of the SDG 2.1.2 indicators are not available from other countries in Micronesia, it is difficult to make comparisons.

• Thailand appreciates the report of the State of food and agriculture in the Asia and the Pacific region: Global and Regional food security outlook and foresight.
• With the increase of urbanization, constrained environment and consumer expectation toward the agriculture and food sector. The innovative and evidence based practices for sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems.
• Healthy diets are very important for the wellbeing of the nation. The link between agriculture, food and nutrition is more needed in a balanced action between production and consumption.
• Recommendation

1. We would like to request capacity building to apply data analysis and methodology at the national level in order to prioritize the measure according to the risk and challenges at national and subnational level, especially the foresight of food security and food systems.
2. To actively engage and identify areas where agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food sector to access the global financial investment in order to address the future challenges related to international environment agreement.
3. Encourage effort to empower local communities to ensure their food security and nutrition through the engagement of public and private participation.

FAO wishes to thank Thailand for its words of appreciation.

We welcome the recommendation and will be very happy to respond to specific requests for technical support in applying standard methods for food security data analysis at national and subnational level.

Kiribati supports the report presented. Unfortunately, internet from our end is not that excellent that our connections drop here and there affecting our hearing of the presentation and interventions.

Anyways Kiribati first of all, would like to congratulate the Chair for your appointment and look forward to work with you in your biannual stewardship. Also, our congratulations to Philippines in their appointment to be the rapporteur of this APRC37. Not forgetting the host for the meeting, Sri Lanka, many thanks for the great organization.

Kiribati though would like to request FAO to please focus assistance to our National Food Systems efforts to build a resilient food system. We also would like to request FAO to assist Kiribati in its water needs for agriculture. Climate Change impacts especially the drought is a challenging phenomenon to our agriculture.

South South Cooperation is one approach that we can all share our lessons or share technologies and innovations from each other. Kiribati would like to request for the SSC however would like to request for competent English-speaking technicians.

Kiribati is a net import country on food items. Building a strong biosecurity is critical to ensure transboundry diseases of animals and plants are kept out from our vulnerable island state. Strengthening the assistance rendered from IPPC and Codex Alimentarious is also needed for strengthening our Biosecurity front lines.

Data gap is a challenge for agriculture in Kiribati as correctly highlighted by Australia and NZ reps. If FAO can assist in this area – that would be greatly appreciated as collecting these data to make sound analysis on our food security status is critical.

In conclusion, Kiribati would like to thank FAO for the support to our farmers/people in their pursuit to increase local production in the on-going food security programs/projects.

FAO thanks Kiribati for having expressed its support to the report presented.