WEF spotlight: How to strengthen ASEAN agriculture

MANILA, Philippines – How do we include farmers in economic growth?

This question, and all the issues that go with it, will be tackled during the “Grow Asia Agriculture Forum” to be held on May 21 in New World Hotel, Makati City.

Happening on the first day of the 23rd World Economic Forum on East Asia, the event will launch Grow Asia, a new platform that aims to help strengthen the agricultural sector of ASEAN member countries. 

Strengthening the region’s agricultural sector is especially necessary in a time when threats to food security loom. By 2050, the world needs to feed two billion more people.  

According to research from the University of Minnesota, crop production will have to double in order to feed that population.

But agriculture and farmers need to brace for other pressures as well. Climate change is expected to lead to longer droughts, more intense heat waves and more rainfall – phenomena which can spell the difference between a successful and failed harvest.

Other land uses, like industrial and commercial uses, are limiting the amount of land that can be devoted to agriculture. With the increasing number of mouths to feed in the world, this means farmers need to grow more in about the same size of land. 

Solutions, collaborations

Grow Asia hopes to be the platform where partnerships between stakeholders can be forged and solutions to challenges to agriculture – like climate change and water issues – can be made. 

Over 150 officials from ASEAN governments, private sector leaders, civil society champions and farmer associations will gather and thresh out ways to make agriculture more robust.

The forum hopes to spark discussions and dialogues between these players that could lead to collaboration, whether between a company and a farmer association or between a country and another country.

Best practices and out-of-the-box solutions to challenges will also be presented. By the end of the event, all stakeholders should be able to come together to craft an agenda with a list of priorities and actions to be taken.

Tackling key issues

Grow Asia will not be starting from scratch. It will build on existing projects already being pursued by the World Economic Forum and ASEAN countries under the New Vision for Agriculture (NVA) initiative.

Specifically, the WEF is working with Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar to improve farmer productivity, make their crops and products more profitable and competitive, and improve their quality, all in the environmentally sustainable manner.

The forum will tackle some of the most important issues facing ASEAN agricultural development and food security today through 6 parallel sessions:

• Raising Farm Productivity – How to harvest more crops from limited areas of land and using new techniques and technology
• Applying Innovative Financing Models – How to make smallholder farmers more financially-secure
• Increasing Efficiency in Food Value Chains – How to add value to farmers’ crops
• Developing Climate-Smart Agriculture – How to prepare agriculture for the potentially crippling effects of climate change
• Strengthening the Enabling Environment – How to develop policies and practices to strengthen the agricultural sector
• Leveraging Information and Communication Technology – How to use the Internet and new media to help farmers

– Rappler.com

The Philippines is hosting the World Economic Forum on East Asia from May 21 to 23, 2014 at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. For updates about the forum, visit Rappler’s microsite.

Worker in rice field image from Shutterstock