Tag Archives: food security

AGRICULTURE NEWS UPDATES IN ASIA – September 2024

Stay rooted in the latest agriculture news updates!  


Country News 

Australia/New Zealand

Trigall Australia gets go-ahead for trial of GM wheat

QUT-developed GM Cavendish QCAV-4: it tastes great

FSANZ Opens Public Comment Period for GM Sugar Beet

COGEM Releases Advice on Renewal of Import and Processing of GM Oilseed Rape MON88302

China 

Steps taken to ensure food security

China issues action plan for Africa including agricultural modernization and technology transfers

Soaring vegetable prices add to woes facing households in China

India

Women, youth, farmers, poor central to BJP, Cong manifestos

States asked to choose between MSP and deficiency payment

Farm bodies skeptical of agriculture policy’s viability

Indonesia

Peru and Indonesia hold third round negotiations for Trade Agreement

IKN to Implement Modern Agriculture, Observer Reminds of Indonesia’s Food Estate Failure

Indonesia eyes China’s agricultural technology for achieving food self-sufficiency

Indonesia seeks Australia’s expertise for food self-sufficiency

Korea

Exports of Korean Agri-food Products Have Increased for 12 Consecutive Months

South Korea: Prolonged heatwaves lead to brown planthopper infestations, ravaging rice farms

Brazil and South Korea discuss tariff cuts for grapes and strawberries

Malaysia

Agrobank signs MoU with Borong for RM300m MSME financing

Farmers can Breathe a Sigh of Relief

Philippines

50,000 rice farmers seen to benefit from new DBP facility

DA chief: new law declares smuggling, hoarding of agricultural products as economic sabotage

Taiwan

Taiwan denounces China for discontinuing tariff exemptions on farm goods

Taiwan Smart Agriweek kicks off in Taipei

Young Agricultural Ambassadors visit Malaysia, where they explore how to bring Taiwan agriproducts in line with international halal certification standards and develop markets in New Southbound Policy partner countries

Thailand

Thai rice export prices hit 14-month low

Uzbekistan and Thailand to deepen cooperation in trade, agriculture, and tourism

Singapore 

Singapore’s homegrown farming dream is beginning to fade

Vietnam

Frozen durian exports could reach 300 million USD in 2024

Vietnam is ready to share agricultural experiences with African countries


Global News

FAO sees open trade as a cornerstone of global food security

Bilateral meetings highlight the importance of cooperation in technology, international trade, sustainable production, and the fight against hunger

Update from G20 Agricultural Ministers Meeting

CropLife International applauds G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Declaration

CropLife International welcomes Recommendations of B20 Task Force as “a true roadmap for meaningful food system transformation”

Photo credit: g20.org, Photo by Guilherme Martimon/MAPA

Plant Science Updates

Super golden lettuce richer in vitamin A

Gene Editing to Produce Gluten-Free Wheat

Health and Environmental Concerns Influence Consumers’ GM Food Consumption

Century-old experiment secures beer and whiskey’s future

The next ‘big thing’ in genetically modified crops: Drought-tolerant and herbicide resistant wheat. Here’s what you need to know


Credits to the website owners of the news embedded on this post.

ASIA’S FARM TO FORK PODCAST EPISODE 32 | DR. NEOH ON FOOD SECURITY AND THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

In another new episode of the second season of the Asia’s Farm to Fork: 5 Good Questions Podcast, we speak to Dr. Neoh Soon-Bin, Managing Director, Soon Soon Group, about food security and price inflations. We also learn about the benefits of governmental partnerships in the agricultural sector. Dr. Neoh brings an insightful perspective from the food and feed ingredients industry in Malaysia. Listen ’til the end for a quick introduction on how his favorite dish is prepared, the Peranakan dish – Assam Laksa.

For more podcast episodes, visit and subscribe at Asia’s Farm to Fork Youtube or Spotify.

FOOD SECURITY AND BEYOND: THE INTERSECTION OF AGRICULTURE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE, BIODIVERSITY AND SOCIAL RIGHTS

By: CropLife International

It’s been 50 years since Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to global food security. Over the last half-century, agriculture has leveraged science and innovation to continue the Green Revolution that Dr. Borlaug started to help grow rural communities and agricultural economies, and sustainably feed our population. This year’s recognition of the World Food Programme for the Nobel Peace Prize shows us that there is still much work to be done to achieve Zero Hunger. Farmers globally are challenged with sustainably growing safe and nutritious foods while adjusting to climate change conditions and working to preserve biodiversity and the environment.

Agriculture is moving beyond just improving food security and can significantly help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A new generation of agriculturalists, environmentalists, and changemakers will help shape how agriculture will intersect with not just climate change, biodiversity, and livelihoods, but also social rights including how agriculture can improve equity and access.

The 2020 World Food Prize and International Borlaug Dialogue is taking place in 2020 from October 12 – 16. This year’s theme is “Breaking New Ground: Building Resilience Today for Improved Global Food Systems Tomorrow.”

CropLife International organized a virtual side event to recognize the achievements of Dr. Norman Borlaug and his impact of farming today, with a panel discussing the journey agriculture will take in the next 50 years. Featuring a welcome from CropLife International President and CEO Giulia Di Tommaso, the panel was moderated by Christine Gould, founder and CEO of Thought For Food and member of the Advisory Committee for the UN Food Systems Summit. Panelists included Michael Doane, Global Managing Director for Sustainable Food and Water at The Nature Conservancy, and Cassia Moraes, Founder and CEO of Youth Climate Leaders.

Don’t have time to watch the full event? Please see a summary below of the panelists’ contributions; their respective fireside chats have also been pulled out into separate videos.

Conservation & Sustainable Agriculture: A Discussion with Michael Doane
Creating a balanced, sustainable relationship with nature is critical for feeding a growing global population today and for future generations. Finding that balance is no easy task, but Michael Doane has spent his career working to ensure agriculture can thrive through a sustainable lens.

The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to conserve the land and water that sustains all life on our planet. Michael’s role with The Nature Conservancy is to find ways to scale up conservation outcomes across productively managed farming, ranching and agroforestry landscapes.

CropLife International invited Michael to participate in a virtual fireside chat moderated by Christine Gould. In this interview, Michael highlights that a sustainable relationship with agriculture and nature is not only completely possible, it’s become more mainstream through the adoption of “regenerative agriculture.”

While there is certainly a long way to go, the spark to jumpstart a sustainable restoration agenda exists and is ready to ignite. Watch Michael recount his experiences in advocating for sustainability and share his thoughts on the impact of Dr. Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution:

Youth Fighting Climate Change: A Discussion with Cassia Moraes
In order to meet our goals in implementing sustainable agricultural practices and mitigating the effects of climate change, we need a grassroots movement. Cassia Moraes’ job is to connect and mobilize youth to grow that movement to fuel progress toward a more sustainable future.
Cassia Moraes founded Youth Climate Leaders, a global youth leadership network dedicated to connecting and organizing youth to fight climate change. Inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Cassia has dedicated the better part of the last decade to finding innovative ways to fight climate change.

Cassia sat down with Christine Gould to talk about what the Youth Climate Leaders organization does, how Cassia empowers young people to become climate leaders, and what the plant science industry can to do curb the effects of climate change.

Cassia emphasizes that even though the issue of climate change may seem daunting and overwhelming, anyone can make a difference on the individual level to help mitigate its effects — and this growing movement is cause for optimism. Watch Cassia recount her experiences in advocating for sustainability and share her thoughts on the impact of Dr. Borlaug and the Green Revolution:

Farming Perspectives: Looking to the Future
The side event was organized in partnership with the Global Farmer Network (GFN) and featured a short video interview with two young farmers who work with the Global Farmer Network: Ruramiso Mashumba, Farmer in Marondera, Zimbabwe and Diego Guigou, Agronomist in Dolores, Uruguay. They spoke about the major challenges facing food and feed production today, and what steps can be taken to ensure agriculture continues to flourish in the future.

Click here to read the full interviews with Ruramiso and Diego.

FOOD LOSS, FOOD WASTE, AND THE IMPACT OF PLANT SCIENCE

By: CropLife International

The amount of food lost or wasted every year presents countless problems for society, such as threatening food insecurity, and recent events have highlighted how serious this can get.

But what do we mean by ‘lost’ and ‘wasted’, how exactly can it increase the risk of food insecurity, and how can plant science help reduce food loss and waste?

Here, we explore the difference between these terms and find out what is being done to make the most of our food supply.

The difference between food loss and food waste

Food loss and food waste both refer to food supply that drops out of the ‘farm-to-table’ cycle at different stages.

  • Food loss = anything involving the growers, farmers and suppliers up to the point where it becomes available to buy.
  • Food waste = anything from this point onwards, including shops, supermarkets, restaurants and consumers.

How does this threaten food security?

Food loss is a particular problem in developing nations, where weaknesses in supply chains are more common.

A functional supply chain is crucial to ensuring food reaches the destinations that rely on it most. If a food supply chain breaks down, whether it’s from reduced harvests or insufficient storage or the inability to pack and transfer goods along the cycle, consumers might experience food shortages or fluctuations in food prices. For the most vulnerable communities, they might suffer from food insecurity. This is exacerbated during unexpected events, for example pandemics, due to a variety of factors including reduced availability of land and supply of workers.

Professor of food policy at City University in London, Tim Lang has just published a book exploring food waste and security in detail – Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them. We interviewed him at the beginning of the month and he stresses that, “Food security is a complicated issue that is about more than just quantity or tonnage of food.

“It touches on issues of food supply, to notions of self-sufficiency, security, risk and resilience – which is about the capacity of systems to bounce back when they’ve suffered shocks.”

Tackling food loss

A planted field is the first place in the supply chain where food loss can occur. Drought is a major contributor to the problem, and caused 83% percent of all global crop losses and damage between 2006 – 2016.

Looking more specifically at the developing world, up to 50% of all crops are lost to pests, crop diseases or post-harvest losses. Natural disasters can also be devastating for farmers in developing countries. Between 2005 and 2015, farmers lost around $96 billion worth of crops and livestock as a result of floods, tsunamis, and other catastrophic events.

According to the UN’s food loss index (FLI), on average, 14% of the world’s food is lost between the post-harvest and consumer stages due to issues like inadequate storage or transit facilities, or even human error. These losses vary by region – in central/southern Asia, it’s 21%, while in Australia and New Zealand, it’s just 6%.

Professor Lang also highlights the divide between food loss and food waste in the developed and developing worlds, saying, “There’s a rich-world pattern of food waste that is very different from the poor-world pattern.

“In the poor world there is large amounts of loss on or near farms because of poor storage, poor facilities, poor farmer capacity, and poor logistics to get the food off their land to urban settlements.”

Losses would be much worse if farmers couldn’t utilize innovations in plant science. Crop protection products, for example, provide the world’s crops with vital protection against insects, diseases and weeds during production and harvest. Without them, global crop losses would double each year.

Biotech crops help to prevent pre-harvest losses by protecting against threats such as plant diseases and pests like insects, which can cost farmers 60-80% of their yield in some regions.

This creates profound, life-changing opportunities in developing regions. For example, Asia is an emerging region for biotech, with eight Asian countries planting GM crops in 2018. GM crops have been shown to increase average yields by 22%, and profits by 68%, which can help farmers put food on the table, or send their children to school.

What about food waste?

Food waste contributes to about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and can cause as much damage to our planet as plastic waste.

Food is often deemed unfit for sale by supermarkets for no other reason than it is the wrong shape, size or color – for example, apples not being red enough. Supermarkets occupy a large portion of the supply chain in many countries and food waste at these outlets can create a considerable impact. In the UK, where big retailers represent 85% of the market share, a reported 25% of apples, 20% of onions and 13% of potatoes are wasted for cosmetic reasons.

This is not the only source of commercial food waste. According to Winnow, a tech firm that creates food waste technology, restaurants can waste as much as 12% of their total food spend. And National Geographic says in a crisis where restaurants schools, caterers, corporate cafeterias and farmer’s markets are forced to close, farmers face a huge supply issue because there is nowhere for their highly perishable produce to go.

Consumers, meanwhile, often throw food away because it has reached the ‘best-before’ date, even though it is still fit for consumption, as they often confuse the ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ labels. Also, a lot of food goes to waste simply because households buy too much and then don’t have time to eat it all.

Professor Lang, however, highlights that, “In a country like Britain or the U.S., there is staggering waste at the consumer level, but that is sometimes blamed on consumers. I’m not saying consumers aren’t in some way responsible, but this problem has exposed that actually there is an avalanche of food. There is no shortage of food, in fact, there is a problem with over-production.”

He also, stresses that the worth consumers attach to food has an impact on patterns of waste, saying, “High domestic expenditure values food, but cheap food devalues it.”

Challenging the issue of waste

There are lots of ways to combat food waste, from government plans to the actions of private companies and everyone being more conscious of the amount of food they eat and store.

In Australia, where food waste costs the economy $20 billion each year, the government has introduced the National Food Waste Strategy, supporting collective action to halve food waste in the country by 2030. This will include an initial $1.3 million of funding to implement a strategy that engages Australian businesses and encourages them to commit to reducing food waste.

Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, announced a 17% drop in food waste in 2018/19 after implementing plans to distribute surplus food to staff, charities and community groups.

Consumers are embracing technology as a way to cut down on their food surpluses. Olio, a free food-sharing app which connects neighbors and local shops to stop any surplus food being thrown away, is being used in more than 30 countries worldwide.

In the U.S., some companies – like Imperfect Foods – take surplus and ‘imperfect’ food items from farmers, growers, and food purveyors and deliver them to customers at a discount.

“These imperfections are often small quirks in appearance – too big, too small, too curvy, off color – that don’t impact the flavor or nutrition,” explains Philip Behn CEO of Imperfect Foods. “When perfectly good grocery items are close to expiration or going through packaging changes, grocers won’t purchase or stock those goods.”

Imperfect Foods is able to take this situation and turn it into a win-win for consumers and stores. This model has helped the company save 100 million pounds of food from going to waste since it was founded in 2015.

The actions of everybody in the production cycle, from farmers to consumers, will make the difference in global attempts to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12, which includes halving global food waste by 2030.

Behn adds: “Between the environmental impact as well as inefficiencies for hardworking farm partners and food producers, we need to drive food waste down so we can build a better food system.”

These efforts have a vital ally in plant science, which is already tackling food loss and world hunger. A great example is Arctic Apples, developed in the U.S.. These apples cut food waste by browning at a much slower rate and therefore are less likely to be thrown away. It’s an ideal solution in a country where the demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and vegetables means that half of all produce is thrown away.

But this is just the beginning. If developed nations truly embrace the power of plant science, they will find a wealth of ways to contribute to global food security.

This content was taken from CropLife International website. You may check the link here