Food Security and Nutrition in APEC Economies. Sharing lessons learned and looking into the future
Dear Friends,
It is a matter of great pleasure to invite you to an online discussion on Food Security and Nutrition in APEC economies.
This discussion is organized in the context of the “APEC Food Security Training and Workshop” that the Agriculture Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences is hosting on September 7-9, 2015 in Beijing, China.
APEC is the premier Asia-Pacific economic forum which goal is to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.
The major objectives of the workshop are to promote communications among APEC economies’ food security researchers and experts, build interest on food security strategies, enhance research capacity and offer policy recommendations to improve food security. The training and workshop will identify existing methodologies, tools and best practices of food security researches and improve future research on food security and research issues.
Notwithstanding the regional aim of the workshop, we believe that the knowledge of experts from APEC economies can be of great value to practitioners in the rest of the world on food security and vice versa.
In order to allow the workshop to benefit the food security community as much as possible, our vision therefore is that interested individuals, food security professional, practitioners, researchers and students from all over the world can join this event through this online discussion. On the days of the workshop we will share the write-up and results from the training sessions with all of you, while the inputs received through this online discussion will be discussed at the meeting.
Given the above we would like to invite you to reflect on the following guiding questions drawing on the experience in your country.
- How can smallholder farmers benefit from global value chains?
- What is the most striking example of measures that have improved Food security and Nutrition in your country in the last decade?
- What are the challenges for policy implementation in your country related to food security research?
- How can we ensure the participation of youth in the wider food security dialogue?
If you would like to provide your feedback to this online discussion please do not hesitate to comment on the discussions website or to send your comments to [email protected]. Please also feel free to circulate this information among your colleagues
Comments are welcome in English, French, Spanish and Chinese
Our sincere thanks go to all of you for the active participation and the open exchange of views!
We look forward to meeting you online.
Prof. Nie Fengying
Director
International Division
Agriculture Information Institute
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
- Read 60 contributions
In recent years, to improve food security and nutrition is increasingly concerned by the parties in China. From the national respective, in order to improve food safety and nutrition has done a lot of efforts. For example, since January 1, 2013, the majority of supermarkets will be forced to put on the “4+1”and more information nutrition labels, which is known as “the Chinese food industry revolution”: from food safety to the nutritional health; Frozen dumplings, steamed buns, Glutinous Rice Balls, shrimp balls, soy sauce and other prepackaged food without food nutrition labels will not be sold.
In my opinion, global value chain is depend on the economic globalization, which is closely contacted with the development of market economy. So I think the most important for a smallholder to benefit from global value chains is the development of market economy and the opportunity for a smallholder to take part in the market economy. If a developed market economy is existed and smallholders have the opportunity to take part in the market economy, smallholders will have chance to buy seed, chemical fertilizer, pesticides and other materials and sell his agricultural products in the market. These smallholders alse have the opportunity to share the achievements of the development of science and technology. Then they will have the chance to benefit from global value chains.
Agricultural value chains are organizational schemes that enable a primary product to get sold and transformed into consumable end-products, adding value at each step of a gradual process of transformation and marketing. It is not only recently that the value chain concept has been entering the development debate.
Value chains can be an opportunity to link smallholder farmers in developing countries to lucrative markets for consumer goods worldwide. However, How can smallholders engage? Who drives smallholder engagement? What makes smallholders benefit?
Having served as invited foreign expert to 7 PRC Minister, lecture to Agriculture, Forestry, Science, Law universities, and led in soil, food, forestry security across 9 provinces, the challenges for PRC 2015—is greater than any other nation! Each nation is seriously different not related. With respect your questions are too narrow to address “saving the future!
The following from hands on teaching! Best to address PRC conditions specifically!
(1) Firstly perpetual land tenure to PRC Farmers Herders. Grow soil, soil-carbon-nutrients.
(2) Food security relies on secure nutrient rich soil and water. Do not set bench marks in a decade but perpetual to set a model for you to become farmers.
(3) PRC greatest challenge is lack of teaching planning perpetual soil, soil-elements hence it must import food and fodder and forestry. The problem is UN, UK, USA AU Australia all report 20-40 more years of soil to grow food. So PRC suffering more than the above a plan to grow soil for food and to stop deserts. Farmer education and land tenure key to survive!
PRC has hand pollinated for 32 years a global challenge is grow soil and bees and lowering CO2e.
(4) Teach soil water vegetation atmosphere bees are the only assets of all living matter all else but commodities. Sadly without President XI grating land tenure to Farmers Herders you have 14 more years of soil.
Best your conference addresses the PRC loss of the 5 base assets and how to write curriculum to schools, Universities and Farmer groups. Check PRC media SFA et al for some of my published copies but part of the above. Do not close the conference without a projected plan. Robert Vincinwww.youtube.com/watch?v=YbI8YZmBP8g&feature=youtu.be
The implementation a value chain approach is a core issue to link smallholder farmer with global market. It is clear. Global market contributes on both: to implement best practices for production and businesses and to make compatible smallholders production activities with market standards. The linkage among smallholder farmers-Intermediaries-Consumers is a key element for food security and sustainable production. It is important also to add value and impact positively the income generation. The Global market can help to improve the incomes of smallholder farmer and move on from marginal conditions to become in actors capable to add resources for society.
The farmers' coopertive is an important way for smallholders to increase their market power. Effective farmers' coopertive can help smallholders to bargin with upstream suppliers and downstream middlemen. On the one hand, the huge amounts of purchase can lower the cost of seeds and fertilizers; on the other hand, agricultural products of good quality also can help farmers gain higher price.
To improve the interests of small holders. At first, we must understand the global value chain very well. Global value chain is the product of economic globalization, it is not only to respect the rights of parties who involved in the value chain and their own interests, but also to develop and expand the common interests of all parties, to avoid protectionism and other factors to interfere or cut off the global value chain. Second, to adapt to the changes in the international market as soon as possible to make the traditional production and management mode of small farmers as soon as possible to help small farmers to comply with international rules, but also to the rapid development, so as to improve their competitiveness.
Scale production of maple crops is the future direction of agriculture in China. As the policy supports, more and more family farmers is now engaged in scale production and the farmers association, processing industry. Thus, in the future, by the coopration between large scale farers and small holders in different forms, the small holders could be more involved in the value chain in China, even in the world.
Compared with the foreign farmers in developed countries, especially USA, Canada, Australia, the farmers in China on the value chain have poor voice. After they sold their products, e.g., maize, wheat and rice, they were never involved in the market, no matter how the processed products price went. So How to solve the problems is very important for farmer benefitting from the global value chain.
In China, there are millions of small holders. Compared with the large scale farmers in developed countries, the farmers in China faced significantly higher production costs, such as higher labor cost, higher fertilizer price. Especially recently years, the prices of food crops have been decreased. Even though the prices of maize, wheat and rice had kept relatively higher. The gap of food prices between China and foreign countries was becoming wider. However, the income of farmer is still lower, compared with the returns of economic crops. How to improve the income of small holder farmers is very important for the future of China's food security and sustainable production of food crops.
This activity is now closed. Please contact [email protected] for any further information.