Asia-Pacific ministers meet FAO to boost food security

The meeting took place on April 23, with officials aiming to harness the region's agricultural capacities to bolster food security while ensuring smallholders benefit from technology and trade..

Opening the 38^th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC38), Crown Prince of Brunei, Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah called on countries to work together to increase resilience and food security in the region.

“We meet at an important time. Food systems across the region are under increasing pressure, climate change is already affecting how we grow and produce food, natural ecosystems have been strained, and supply chains remain vulnerable,” he said. “We cannot ignore the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East which continue to disrupt global trade and energy markets. Against this backdrop food security must remain at the very center of our collective efforts.”

The conference comes at a critical time. Increased energy and fertiliser costs, reduced income from agricultural exports to Gulf countries, and ongoing uncertainty caused by the 2026 conflict in the Middle East is increasing volatility in agricultural commodity markets, tightening the connection between geopolitical risk, food-energy systems and global inflation pressures. This is in addition to longer term pressures from intensifying climate impacts including droughts, floods and extreme weather events, and land and water degradation.

"We must build resilience from within, because no external help will be sustainable without our own collective will,” FAO director-general QU Dongyu said in remarks to the key ministerial meeting. The director-general noted that the region, home to more than half the world’s population and food production, has made remarkable progress in agricultural productivity, trade and technological innovation, yet remains home to more food insecure people than any other.

“Public resources alone will not be enough,” he said, urging participants to engage with the theme of financing and investments in agrifood systems, which are at the centre of several roundtable dialogues at the APRC38.

Qu pointed to 'unprecedented opportunities' for the region through science and innovation, digitalisation, investment and partnerships, noting that more and more countries in the region are graduating out of least developed country status and, having a stronger food security base, are aiming to increase trade in their agricultural surpluses and value-added products.

Member countries participating in the conference will indicate the priority regional and local themes and areas for FAO to take into account while preparing the Programme of Work and Budget for the next biennium, and aligning them with FAO’s Strategic Framework, Medium-Term Plan and country programming frameworks.

Addressing the conference at the high-level ministerial session, Deputy Minister Vo Van Hung of Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, said, “Vietnam fully agrees with FAO's vision of considering innovation as the key to transforming the agri-food system towards a more efficient, inclusive, adaptive and sustainable direction. The Vietnamese government identifies innovation as the main driver and strategic pillar to ensure food security in the context of a complex global environment.”

The APRC38’s agenda includes bolstering access to affordable and nutritious diets – which are relatively expensive compared to global averages – speeding up low emission and sustainable agricultural practices, facilitating trade and market integration and mobilising domestic and international finance and investment and directing it to smallholders, who constitute 80 per cent of all agricultural producers in the region.

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