In the second part of the Asia Thinker Series (Beyond Vaccines) on 30 challenges faced in the post-COVID world, moderator Professor Benjamin Cashore, Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Director of Public Policy Initiative for Environment and Sustainability (PPIES) at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), NUS, navigates a conversation with guest experts – Dr Thomas Panella, Director of Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Division (East Asia Department) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Dr Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Professor Paul Teng, Adjunct Senior Fellow, at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU, and Assistant Professor Sreeja Nair, at LKYSPP – on the challenges and possibilities of Asia’s food and water security in the near future.
In the face of rapid climate change, a shaky global political stage and a world beset by an ongoing pandemic, the future of Asia’s food and water security for every nation in the region is increasingly pressing. Ensuring a forward resilience and sustainability now without succumbing to the one-step-forward-and-two-back dance wrought by an uneven pandemic response is crucial.
Baby steps matter
Still, the picture is not all bleak and doom. Assistant Professor Sreeja Nair of LKYSPP, whose research centers on and extrapolates from the Indian agricultural sector, notes the value of policy piloting for risk management. “70 per cent of rural households [in India] are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, of which about 82 per cent comprise farmers with small and marginal landholdings who take years to recover from poor land and crop yields. The role of the government in supporting them, then, is substantial,” she says in the dialogue’s opening remarks. “[Policy] pilots can be used as a tool to move from a reactive to a more anticipatory policy design… they can [be applied] to explore small adjustments to land and water use techniques, to deal with sudden changes such as drought or storm, to provide risk-hedging designs and strategies for the short-term.
“Government of India has been partnering with stakeholders to test crop insurance, blockchain, big data statistics and artificial intelligence in agriculture sector with results that were helpful in dealing with the supply chain when the pandemic hit; so, this is promising for the future,” Asst Prof Nair says of the potential of piloting in the digital era .
Scaling up and conscientious incorporation of piloting in agricultural policymaking is key, she opines, to ensuring its widespread and longer-term success as a tool for risk management and also innovation in the sector. Further highlighting the potential of pilots Professor Benjamin Cashore suggests that “incremental piloting can be stepped up into meaningful, transformative change.”
Life rafts for water security
On the future of water security in Asia and the Pacific, Dr Thomas Panella focusses on the central approach of building and mainstreaming resilience. In a broad look at the National Water Security Index of Asian Development Bank (ADB) members in the Asia-Pacific region, a majority of the countries register in the middling 2 to 3 score In the organisation’s seven-year study, a positive upward trend is noted, though not quite enough – countries in the Pacific face the biggest challenges. “Despite these improvements, we still see many people stuck in a water-insecure situation,” warns Dr Panella.
The ADB measures water security based on an inclusive “5 Key Dimensions” chart: how it is managed, and risks faced in the rural household, economic, urban, environmental, and water-related disaster spheres. While progress has been made on most counts – except on the environmental dimension where backsliding has happened – there is much room to work towards.
“A holistic approach is needed,” observes Dr Panella, “[while] many policies are good, we need resources and capacities to implement, and focus on vulnerable groups, as well as having localised solutions.”
Two further aspects determine water security as well. According to Dr Panella’s research, he notes, “most countries have good governance frameworks in place, however, what is needed is more policy instruments – especially economic instruments – to manage trade-offs, and in many countries, integrity and transparency is a concern. On finance and water security, our important finding is that it’s not [just] about more money, but on using existing assets and budgets more effectively.”
The place of policy
Dr Máximo Torero follows through the strands introduced by the previous panellists to focus on the issue of water security in agriculture. Citing the findings of his research report, The State of Food and Agriculture 2020 – overcoming water challenges in agriculture , he points to the alarming disparity among regions that face water scarcity stress in agriculture – with approximately 1,045 million people in Asia (or close to 25 per cent of the global agricultural population) living in high drought frequency or other water stress conditions.
A silver lining does exist in the form of innovative responses to these water concerns. But before that, necessary pre-conditions including a sound governance and policy environment has to be in place.
“It is crucial to understand the status, trends and broader societal context of water resources – water accounting and auditing can create an improved water management system,” cautions Dr Torero.
He elaborates: “Ensuring policy coherence across sectors and domains is the first condition for improving the management of water resources. Coherence and coordination is important for addressing any sustainable change across and within sectors. For instance, policies in the water sector can be [negatively] affected by seemingly unrelated policies in other domains; interventions in one agricultural sub-sector can impact another sub-sector. And there are trade-offs; effective regulation must be in place to protect environmental flows and water-related ecosystems.”
The future of food
Professor Paul Teng brings the topic home, literally and figuratively, by examining food security in the new normal and how one country’s example, such as Singapore, has had to re-look at the issue urgently in light of the pandemic.
“Whilst many countries have measures in place to manage the spread of the [COVID-19] virus, we have also been forced to look at how this has affected all parts of the food supply chain – from provision of input, farming, harvesting, processing, transport and distribution, wholesale through to retail,” says Prof Teng.
“The pandemic has brought to the forefront the need to re-think food security… and food resilience,” continues Prof Teng, “food resilience means the ability to withstand short-term perturbations or disruptions from outside sources and stockpiles.”
In a country such as Singapore, which imports over 90 per cent of food consumed, ensuring uninterrupted supply is paramount. To this end, Singapore has responded to the immediate issue of food security by promptly negotiating supply chain connectivity agreements. Of note, says Prof Teng, are “’Green lanes’ which allow movement of goods, agricultural inputs, special dispensation for labour in food production and movement. And in retail, the emergence of e-commerce to connect sellers to buyers of raw material. For Cooked food, the emergence of food banks and voluntary groups to help feed the poor.”
On the resilience-building capacity front, Prof Teng says he is heartened to note that community responses in particular, form part of the New Normal here. These, together with increasing levels of self-production of key foods, upping stockpile levels of essential foods and financing of projects to develop alternative sources of foods, plus an overarching policy to reduce food waste – all contribute to food security and resilience.
“COVID-19, more than anything else, has accelerated the development of agricultural and food technology together with fintech – known colloquially as ag-tech, food tech and fintech – to [bring about] the fourth industrial revolution… I believe this augur well for Asia’s future.”
Watch the full recording of Beyond Vaccines: Asia’s Food and Water Future below: