Food security in the Asia-Pacific - APPF forum, Japan.

January 18, 2012

The Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum    January 2012, Tokyo Japan.
Global economic situation relating to food security.
Food security in the Asia-Pacific

Reducing hunger by half is the first of the Millennium development Goals (MDGs). According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), nearly one billion people go hungry every day. Two-thirds of those going hungry live in the Asia-Pacific region.
Significant challenges and opportunities confront the region in the reliable supply of safe high quality foodstuffs and potable water into the future. To achieve this MDG goal the aim will require a doubling of food production by 2050. Australia has a critical role to play in achieving this objective.
Definition
Food security concerns universal and sustained physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle. However, under this definition lies a wide range of issues, which make the multiple challenges of food security a daunting task.
These issues include sustainability, environment, poverty (literacy; education; non-agricultural income opportunities; social support and labour conditions for rural communities); agricultural research and extension capacity; transport infrastructure systems; international and communal security; access to international capital; and confidence in international trade.
It is predicted that, by 2050, there will be 1.9 billion more people in the Asia Pacific region. This poses a challenge in itself to provide an ongoing supply of safe, quality water and foodstuffs while at the same time meeting the increasing demand of populations whose socioeconomic status is improving. Historically, we know this reflects in a changing diet with increased emphasis on protein and the variety and quality of foodstuffs.

The challenges for governments, food producers and consumers are complex. The increased global demand for foodstuffs must be met in the face of ;
• decreased availability of land in competition with urban sprawl and erosion,
• reduced access to supply of water,
• a changing climate affecting crop growth,
• less fuel to operate machinery required for agricultural practice,
• decreased access to fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides which might impact adversely on the environment and
• increased competition for finance available to purchase land and fund farming operations.
Availability versus accessibility
The wide range of issues associated with food security is reinforced by basic facts.
Agricultural yields have steadily increased and the potential for further increase remains substantial, despite popular misconceptions regarding the threat posed by decreasing biodiversity and environmental damage (including pest migration; pesticide resistance; land degradation; limited water availability).
A confounding issue is the recent trend to divert valuable agricultural productivity away from food production for human consumption to bio-fuel use. This leads to reduced availability of foodstuffs, higher food prices and the risk of political instability. There is ample evidence of this globally today.
Is food security more a question of "availability" or "accessibility"?
Food is available.

 It is argued that global agricultural output is more than enough and is growing. However, people cannot always get access to food due to economic, social or political reasons. This fact is reflected in the demonstrated correlation between political instability and food insecurity.
Availability
Adequate food supplies in all regions are not assured. Adequate availability of food depends on effective agricultural production. Agricultural productivity is dependent on
• soil factors, including physical properties of soil, its texture, slope, chemical properties, nutrient content, etc;
• plant factors, referring to species and the genetic variation that may exist within species;
• climatic factors, including moisture supply, temperature, solar radiation and carbon dioxide concentration; and
• socioeconomic factors, costs of agricultural inputs and products, farm income, availability of credit, and infrastructure for disseminating information about new knowledge and practices.
Accessibility
Accessibility is the ability to access adequate food supplies on a sustained basis. The basic cause of chronic malnourishment in developing countries is not the lack of food in the world, but the fact that the food is not getting to the people who need it most. Food distribution systems are largely shaped by political/security and economic forces, which can prevent product from being delivered to where it is most needed:
• Security. People a particular country or region may not be able to gain access to food as a result of conflict in country or transportation routes.
• Economics. People within a particular country or region may not be able to gain access to food as a result of insufficient financial means to purchase adequate food.
• Logistics. The current wastage of food from the point of production to the point of consumption is an issue of immense importance. Significant opportunities exist to cost effectively reduce wastage caused by theft, leakage, corruption, vermin, adulteration or spoilage through improved transport and storage logistics.
Thus, the availability of food does not necessarily address the problem of food security. Famines occur and have occurred, in countries in which food is readily or easily available. Classic examples of this include Russia/Ukraine during the 1920s and 1930s; China during the late 1950s and early 1960s; North Korea in the 1990s (potentially continuing to today); and Zimbabwe in the 2000s.
International trade and agricultural trade
Long-term food security is also served by a reorganization of international trade and global agricultural trade, which sustains the economic conditions that affect developing states dependent on volatile and distorted agricultural markets. Agricultural trade liberalisation has been recognized as a priority at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other multilateral, regional and bilateral fora.
Developing countries often lack trade policy skills and are unable to address distortions in trade caused by enhanced tariff, taxation, customs and quota regimes. Accordingly, developing countries often question the benefit they receive from the global trading environment.
The Doha Round of trade liberalization should result in higher market prices and improved market access, thereby encouraging commercialisation of developing country agriculture and increasing domestic production. World agricultural prices could conceivably become more stable as protective and distorting trade barriers are removed. However, the Doha round has essentially stalled and the WTO Agreement on Agriculture remains highly controversial. Key elements of the Agreement on Agriculture include:
• opening up agricultural product markets that previously had been restricted or closed, by stipulating minimum levels of imports;
• expanding access through tariff reduction for a specified quantity of imports; and
• reducing export subsidies
While the Doha Declaration renewed the commitment in the WTO Agreement on Agriculture to take into account food security concerns, there has been only limited progress. The Doha Development Agenda, whilst an explicit recognition of the particular needs of developing countries has not advanced beyond basic negotiations. International trade and the global agricultural trade system remain a long-term impediment to reducing food insecurity.
Food security and other development challenges
Food security is directly connected to other development challenges. This is clearly demonstrated in the connection between the different UN MDGS. Failing to achieve the first MDG target of reducing by half the number of people who live in hunger by 2015, has ramifications for the achievement of other MDGS. Hunger unleashes a vicious circle of deprivation, and affects the entire life-cycle of those who suffer from hunger. For example, hunger increases the risk of premature births and low birth weights. This in turn increases the risk of dying in infancy; of stunted physical and cognitive growth during childhood; of reduced working capacity and earnings as adults; which in turn leads to an increased likelihood of giving birth to premature babies and low weight babies.
Hunger also affects communities as a result of lost productivity, earnings and low consumption. For example, apportioning medical costs in developing countries attributed to child and maternal under-nutrition, suggests that the direct costs add up to an estimated USD30 billion per annum.
Australia’s approach to food security
Australia is a modest producer but a significant exporter of foodstuffs throughout the world. Approximately 60% of the nation's annual wheat crop is exported, principally to Asian countries.
Australia is also a significant exporter of dairy products, meat, live animals, fruit and vegetables to markets in Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East. There is scope for significant expansion of Australia's contribution to food supply throughout the region.
In his 2010 report on 'Food Security in a Changing World' to the Australian Prime Minister, Professor Peter Landridge stated:
"Food is a fundamental requirement to survival. When it becomes scarce people will fight for it yet when it is abundant it is wasted. The transition from abundance to scarcity can happen rapidly. A major drought, a natural disaster or war can suddenly plunge a community into famine. While the transition to hunger can be rapid, escape from hunger can be slow, painful and difficult.
"Global food security will demand the development and delivery of new technologies to increase food production on limited arable land and without relying on increased water and fertiliser use. Australia can make a significant contribution to addressing this challenge. Key advances are expected to come from new breeding technologies, improved resource management systems and a greater understanding of the relationship between food composition, consumption and health."
Australia pursues a comprehensive approach to food security, focused on the immediate needs of the poorest, while also addressing the longer-term foundations of food insecurity. This includes emergency food assistance; funding for rural development; and diplomatic efforts to prioritise food security issues and remove distortions in global agricultural trade.
Australian aid programs addressing food security generally seek to lift agricultural productivity, improve rural livelihoods and build community resilience. One platform of this is investment in agricultural research and development. Australia has developed strategic partnerships between the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and other centres of Australian expertise in agricultural research.
In addition, Australia seeks to expand the capacity of people to access food. This includes support of initiatives, such as:
• community-driven development in the Philippines
• funding for existing social protection activities in Cambodia
• providing social safety nets for the most vulnerable in Burma
• extending and strengthening existing social protection programs in Indonesia, East Timor and Bangladesh
• better management of coastal fisheries in the Pacific through disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies.
An updated version (November 2011) of Australia's food security strategy can be found on the AusAID website at: http://www.ausaid.gov.au/keyaid/pdf/thematic-strategies/food-security-strategy.pdf

How will we manage the challenge?
We must urgently rethink our approach to global food security. This is an imperative involving changes to production, processing, storage, transport, pricing, marketing and delivery to the end consumer. Time is running out to 'get it right'.
In his book The Coming Famine: the global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it (University of California Press 2010), Julian Cribb argues that 'the task is urgent because, according to the world’s leading military analysts, food insecurity also brings with it a high risk of conflict, millions of refugees, regime failure and sharply rising food prices for everyone'.
Cribb argues that sustaining the world food supply is the greatest scientific challenge of our age. He advocates a reinvention of food production systems, development of new energy sources for farming, increasing global investment in agricultural science and changing economic signals to encourage more cost effective production. Examples might be new food industries such as bio-cultures and algal farming using society's organic waste.
My own plea is for governments, universities and the corporate sector to invest more in agricultural and agri-business higher education and in research and development to deliver the much required outcomes. Without this investment, we will not succeed.
We need the brightest of our young graduates funded and focussed on the most important challenge confronting the global community and that is the ongoing supply of foodstuffs to nourish our population.
The world may be hungry for iron ore, coal and energy sources but this demand pales into insignificance against the impact of a world which cannot or will not feed itself.
Acknowledgements.
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Parliamentary Library in preparing this paper.
Dr Christopher J Back
Senator for Western Australia