What is the role of the private sector in increasing food production, in reducing post harvest losses and in improving rural market linkages? This was the focus of the 2^nd ASEAN Food Security Conference held in the Philippines from 18-19 July 2011. The ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility co-organized the conference.

The conference, building on the first ASEAN Food Security Conference held in Singapore in 2010, aimed to generate insights and recommendations on food security concerns, specifically on access to modern production technologies to raise agricultural productivity, access to post-harvest technologies to minimize post-harvest losses and improve rural-market linkages. The conference recommendations will be discussed in the first ASEAN Private Agrifood Sector Conference in October 2011.

Participants of this conference included senior officials from the ASEAN Member States, private sector representatives from the food and agribusiness industries in ASEAN and international government and civil society organizations (CSOs). Private sector participants came from companies such as Syngenta, CP Group (Thailand), Jollibee Foods Corporation, Universal Robina Corporation and Thai Chamber of Commerce.  Among the local and regional CSOs which attended the conference included the Rice Watch and Action Network (R1), Management and Organizational Development for Empowerment (MODE), Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (SEACON), Asian Farmers Association (AFA), AsiaDHRRA, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), OXFAM International, among others.

The key recommendations to the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry were as follows:

1.      Harmonization of agricultural technology risk assessment guidelines, the establishment of an ASEAN technical working group on risk assessment, and the separation of bio-safety from other criteria for risk management decision making.

2.      Encouragement of technology transfer and information sharing regarding alternative agricultural production technologies, respecting the importance of allowing agricultural producers to choose the technologies that best suit their needs.

3.      Launch of an initiative to increase stakeholder awareness of the importance of post-harvest losses and develop locally and product-specific customized management strategies to reduce them.

4.      Development of a common approach to reducing the policy uncertainties that constrain private investment, given the crucial role played by national policy environments in determining market signals, which in turn shape private sector investments in improved grain drying and milling capacity, reduce losses, and lead to higher quality end-products,.

5.      Promotion of strategies to improve rural-market linkages that a) help cover some of the risk and high transaction costs borne as a result of working with smallholder farmers; b) provide extension advice, training, and organizational support to farmers using information technology, recognizing that these will increasingly come from the private sector and civil society; and c) recognize the importance of providing the appropriate enabling environment to encourage private contract farming. (END)