ADB commits to help member countries in food security

Multinational lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday committed to help member countries in improving food security and climate resilience and sustainability.

In his speech during the Rural Development and Food Security Forum in Mandaluyong City, ADB president Takehiko Nakao emphasized the need to provide assistance in food security.

“For its part, ADB will proactively assist our developing member countries to increase agricultural productivity and profitability, enhance food safety, and improve climate resilience and sustainability,” he said.

“We are committed to supporting our member countries to supply sufficient, nutritious, safe, and affordable food. People also want higher quality food as their incomes increase,” he added.

The ADB is based in the Philippines, where agricultural production dropped 5.20% to P424.6 billion in the first half of the year.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) attributed this to declines in crop production as the subsector lost 5.70% in output terms.

“The continued inability of farmers to generate a livable income risks rolling back many of the poverty reduction gains we have made in the last four decades,” Nakao said.

“Further, extreme weather conditions caused by climate change, and degraded farmland and water resources are making our task of finding sustainable solutions even more difficult,” he added.

He called on stakeholders to continue their collaboration in ensuring food security across member countries.

“Now with Rural Development and Food Security as one of the seven operational priorities of ADB’s Strategy 2030, we need to deepen and accelerate our knowledge-sharing efforts with key stakeholders around the world,” said Nakao.

“By 2030, the total population of Asia and the Pacific region is estimated at 4.9 billion —accounting for over 60% of the global population,” according to ADB

“While the region is expected to maintain a robust annual economic growth rate of 6.5% over the coming decades, to supply sufficient, nutritious, safe, and affordable food for an expanding population would be a challenge the region has to reckon with,” it said.

“The region accounts for just 35% of the global arable land, while both its land and water resources are under stress and in decline,” it added/
Nakao noted the ADB has committed $280 million for Uzbekistan to modernize the country's horticulture wholesale market by reducing distribution and marketing costs.

The bank is targeting to boost net incomes of rural households in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar by increasing the climate resilience of rural roads and irrigation systems.

ADB is also supporting the Gansu Internet-Plus Agriculture Development Project in China which provides farmers access to high-value e-commerce markets by developing smartphone applications. —VDS, GMA News