The document provides an overview of the key challenges and opportunities for achieving food security in Asia. It discusses that (1) Asia's past poverty reduction was driven by agricultural growth supported by high-yielding varieties and infrastructure investments, (2) agriculture growth continues to be critical but attention and funding is declining, and (3) food security faces stresses from population growth, climate change, and natural disasters. It argues for filling knowledge gaps, scaling innovative solutions, and creating cooperative partnerships to address these challenges.

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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,…………………

4. attention to Agriculture in Asia is declining
……..

5. And this is also reflected in flows of aid to agriculture
from major aid donors

6. Overall Research and Development is a low priority
0.90
0.77
0.49
0.13 0.14
0.25
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
China India Malaysia Pakistan Sri Lanka Thailand
As%ofGDP
2000

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Land and soil degradation

10. Water scarcity

11. Asia: The most prone region to
natural disasters 1975-2009

12. Asia: The Impact of Natural
Disasters 2009

13. Asia: Intensity and type of Disaster varies across sub-
regions of Asia

14. 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

15. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 26 countries have serious/alarming levels of
hunger (2011 GHI)
GHI components:
•Proportion of undernourished
•Prevalence of underweight in children
•Under-five mortality rate

20. 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
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
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
Cambodia
China
Indonesia
Korea,Dem.Rep.
LaoPDR
Malaysia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Philippines
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Vietnam
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
India
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
SriLanka
Percent
1993-07 2002-06
Percent

21. Women’s Status in Society - an important determinant of food
security and nutritional security is lowest in South Asia

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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

25. 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

26. Exciting Opportunities
The Millions Fed Initiative – Learning from Success

27. Business as Usual is Not Enough
Fan (2010)

28. Fill Knowledge Gaps Minimize Harm
Scale Up Innovative
Solutions
Create a Cooperative
Environment
Way Forward from the IFPRI 2020 Conference:
The Building Blocks

29. (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.

30. (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

31. (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)

32. (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

33. “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

34. 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

35. Thank you so much for your
Attention