Working Group on
Toward Enhancing Food Security in the East Asia

Final ReportTokyo
21st June 2023

1. Background
In East Asia, regional integration and cooperation in a wide range of fields, such as economy,finance, international trade, food security, environment, education, disaster prevention, health andmedical care, have been promoted through multi-layered regional frameworks centering on ASEAN,
which includes ASEAN+3 (APT) and East Asia Summit (EAS).
In particular, the importance of food security is often and strongly reminded because we have
faced challenges to a stable food supply even in the 21st century. In 2007-08, crop failures due tounseasonable weather in some countries, rapid growth in feed demand in emerging economies suchas the BRICs, biofuel booms in the United States and many other countries, an influx of international
speculative funds into the food market all played parts to cause tightening agricultural markets. Partof the result has been threats to food security particularly in low-income countries.
In recent years, the food price index reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
have risen to record levels in 2020 under the market turmoil with the COVID-19 pandemic. It was
further elevated by the disruption in the supply chains due to the Russia-Ukraine war since February
2022. Food protectionist policies such as export banns, which also emerged broadly during theperiod of 2007-08, have been spreading again.
In the longer perspective on the other hand, the climate change poses an elusive threat to thefood sector. Although scientifically unexplained, there are serious concerns that the global warming
will cause negative impacts on agricultural production and food security. At least, it seems that weare looking at extreme weather events causing both unprecedented droughts and floods in different
areas.
Looking back over the past 20-30 years, cooperation for food security was discussed intensively
among the East Asian countries after the World Food Summit in 1996. Since the turn of the 21stcentury, project named ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS) was launched in 2003,
through a Japanese strong initiative, based on the decision made by the APT Ministerial Meeting on
Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF+3). The efforts were followed by the creation of the pilot projectof East Asia Emergency Rice Reserve (EAERR) in 2004. The EAERR has progressed with theestablishment of the ASEAN plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) in 2012. The APTERR
was then incorporated as an international organization in 2016.
The APTERR aims at the food security and poverty alleviation in the APT countries by means of1

the specific rice reserve to cope with disasters and other emergency cases. In 2023 as of May 2nd,
2,926 tons of rice and in-kind payments have already been delivered from APTERR to somerecipient countries, i.e., Cambodia, Myanmar, The Philippines and Laos PDR, for flood andlandslide relief, COVID-19 pandemic, and poverty alleviation (https://www.apterr.org/).
The AFSIS, on the other hand, is a project to contribute to food security through the collection,
analysis and publication of statistical information covering five commodities, i.e., rice, maize, sugar,
cassava, and soybeans, unlike APTERR, which manages only rice. The tasks of AFSIS have been
maintaining a web database on food security information and making public in periodical
publications of Agricultural Commodity Outlook (ACO), Emergency Warning Information (EWI),and Rice Growing Outlook (RGO), other than annual reports and additional publications. The RGO,
however, covers only rice. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan has been
financially and technically supporting AFSIS activities since its establishment. China, Korea andother cooperating partners such as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Remote
Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC), Asian Development Bank, and FAO contribute tostaff training and enhancing AFSIS functions.

2. Objective of the Working GroupThe working group has been set up for the reviewing the above-mentioned situationof food security and the cooperation mechanisms in the APT, with the special focus on
the information systems under the management of the AFSIS. Invited experts toparticipate the WG meeting were requested to report from the stand point both of theircountries and broader perspectives. The problems to be answered could be enumerated
as the following questions:•

How to promote food security in the APT?

•

How to strengthen the existing framework?

•

How to strengthen the organization of AFSIS?

•How to enhance the functions of AFSIS?

3. Eight Options for the AFSIS New Framework
The AFSIS Focal Point Meeting (FPM) in 2022 discussed eight options indicated2below for the AFSIS new framework (cited from Concept Note of the AFSIS NewFramework):
1. To set up Intergovernmental Organization
2. To be subsidiary body of AMAF+3
3. To merge AFSIS to APTERR
4. To merge AFSIS to ASEANstats
4.2. To have the AFSIS Secretariat transform into ASEANstats’ international
branch
5. To rotate the Secretariat among the Member Countries
6. To remain the Secretariat in Thailand while Plus Three countries replace inrotation for providing the 3-5 years technical supporting project,
6.2. To remain the Secretariat in Thailand while +3 countries providing technicalsupporting projects parallelly.
The Focal Point Meeting concluded that Option 6.2 should be adopted as ashort-term solution; meanwhile, the possibility of Option 1 and 3 should be considered
as long-term solutions.

4. Discussions at the Working Group meeting
Sixteen experts from twelve of APT countries, the Japan Forum on International Relations(JFIR) participated in the working group meeting which was held in-person in Tokyo on 21st June
2023. 13 country reports were orally presented there.
After the presentations, Dr. SAKUYAMA Takumi proceeded with the discussion and prompted
the experts to raise some points they considered particularly important, in response to the fourquestions raised in the previous section.

5. Policy Recommendations provided
In light of the above presentations and discussion, the WG on “Toward Enhancing Food Security
in the East Asia” proposes the following policy recommendations in response to the above fourquestions consolidated:3

1.

(Promoting the awareness and closer communication with the public)•We can recognize that food security remains one of the most important issues in the APTregion today, nearly a quarter of a century into the 21st century, and that it is not astandalone problem, but an integrated problem to be solved along with other challenges suchas poverty, sanitation, logistics, international relationships, climate change, and the economy
in general. First, we should make best efforts to raise the public awareness of such nature ofthis problem and of the APTERR, AFSIS and their role for enhancing food security in theregion. Second, APTERR and AFSIS should also take on the responsibility of promoting theawareness of food security to wider stakeholders.

2.

(Enhancing AFSIS’s function)•We should continue the efforts to achieve our goals, and to that end, it is desirable to further
enhance the activities of APTERR and AFSIS. The AFSIS should improve its functions,particularly for early warning by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating more accurate
statistical information, utilizing advanced technologies such as remote sensing. Furthermore,developing micro-level information, such as village level data, will bring significant
improvement in the data quality. We also recommend the expansion of crop coverage, suchas maize, in the RGO report. Similarly, it is also important to use big data and other means
to strengthen the macro industry analysis of important food categories, which is conduciveto accurately serving the international and domestic agricultural investors.

3.

(Cooperation of Japan, China, and Korea)•

By leveraging the wide variety of economic development, social condition and resource
endowment, APT governments should promote regional cooperation in pursuit of foodsecurity. In particular, the three large economies in Northeast Asia, including Japan, Chinaand Korea, may provide experiences and technical assistance for the design andimplementation of right measures for achieving food security in the developing countries ofSoutheast Asia.

4.

(Coordination with other institutions)•

Taking into consideration of the budget constraint, it is imperative to establish links andcooperation with other institutions, government agencies, international organizations,research institutes, and key enterprises in the industry. Interface evolution in expert
network could save the budget of the AFSIS.

5.

(Eight Options for the AFSIS New Framework)• On the matter of the eight options for the AFSIS new framework indicated in4

Section 3, we did not identify and discuss them as a concrete issue. However, weconfirmed the importance of strengthening the framework and cooperation withconcerned institutions such as APTERR to enhance the sustainability of AFSIS
activities in a self-reliant way.
[END]

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List of Participants
Cambodia
Mr. MAK MONY
Director of the Department of Planning and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry,and Fisheries, Cambodia.
Mrs. NETH Thida Vichhuna
Deputy Director at Department of ASEAN Plus Three and East Asia Summit, Ministry ofForeign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
China
Mr. Yang Yong
Senior Research Fellow, Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy ofAgricultural Sciences, China.
Indonesia
Dr. Shofwan Al-Banna Choiruzzad
Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Social andPolitical Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia.
Japan[WG members]*Director of the WG **Chairman of the WG meeting
Dr. KOBAYASHI Hiroaki*
Professor Emeritus, Chiba University, Japan.
Dr. FUKUDA Ryuichi
Associate Professor, Utsunomiya University, Japan.
Dr. SAITO Katsuhiro
Professor, the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Dr. SAKUYAMA Takumi**Professor, Meiji University, Japan.
[The Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR)]
Mr. KIKUCHI Yona
Director and Senior Research Fellow, JFIR, Japan.
Korea
Dr. Do-Chan BAE
Visiting scholar in Seoul National University, Korea.

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Laos
Ms. Phonethavy THAMMASAK
Research Fellow from the Institute of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, LaosPDR.
Malaysia
Dr. Alizan MAHADI
Senior Director of Research at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS),Malaysia.
MyanmarDr. Naing Swe Oo
Founder and executive director of the ThayNinGa Institute for Strategic Studies ( TISS),Myanmar.
Philippines
Ms. Eylla Laire M. Gutierrez
Development Consultant and the Research Manager at the Asian Institute of Management's
Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism, the Philippines.
Singapore
Dr. Sarah TONG
Senior Research Fellow of National University of Singapore (NUS) East Asian Institute andcoordinator for economics, Singapore.
ThailandDr. Awanwee PETCHKONGKAEW
Co-Founding Director of the International Joint Research Center on Food Security(IJC-FOODSEC), Thailand.
VietnamDr. Vu Le Thai HOANG, Director General of the Institute of Foreign Policy and StrategicStudies, and Dean of the Faculty of International Politics and Diplomacy at the Diplomatic
Academy of Viet Nam (DAV), Vietnam

In Alphabetical Order of Country Name7