New report urges connectivity and innovation for Indo-Pacific agriculture

Increased connectivity, innovation and investment are needed to address agriculture and food security in the Indo-Pacific zone, according to a new report launched by the Perth USAsia Centre at the In the Zone 2016: Feeding the Zone forum in Jakarta today.

The report, 'Horizon Volume 1: Feeding Asia – Innovation in Indo-Pacific Agriculture', produced by Knowledge Society, outlines in visual graphic format the demographic and economic mandates for innovation, investment and international co-operation in the region.

The report addresses issues of over-population and a rising Asian middle-class; soaring food prices resulting in poverty and hunger; climate change; and an increasingly unavailable landmass for agricultural purposes.

In launching the report, Professor Gordon Flake, CEO, Perth USAsia Centre said business as usual would not be enough to meet the region's challenges and a fundamental change was urgently needed. 

"We will need international co-operation, innovation and investment."

The Horizon report recommends that:

• policy-makers think across the eco-system of food security especially noting that agricultural demands must be balanced with urbanisation, social development, industrialisation and environmental policies,
• innovation is leveraged to boost agricultural research and development to meet regional and global food demand,
• social investment, access to credit and technology diffusion are improved,
• smarter supply chains are built by upgrading logistics and storage infrastructure and strengthening and integrating supply-chain management,
• markets and trade are organised with greater efficiency, opening more opportunities for stronger policy-making and financial investment and reducing the fragmentation of Asian food production.

The complex and challenging issue of 'Feeding the Zone' is the subject of a one-day discussion in Jakarta, Indonesia today as part of the Perth USAsia Centre's In the Zone 2016 event, in partnership with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia.  More than 1000 delegates from government, business and academia have convened to discuss strategic solutions to food and water security in the Indo-Pacific zone.

Facts and statistics

• 60% - the proportion of the global population that lives in Asia today
• 50% - the proportion of global food that Asia consumes today
• 23% - the proportion of global middle-class spending that Asian middle-class spending constituted in 2010
• 59% - the proportion of global middle-class spending that Asian middle-class spending will constitute by 2030
• 35% - the average amount of food produced in Asia that was lost or wasted in 2012
• 17% - the maximum share of Asian landmass that could be repurposed as new farmland
• 735 million - the number of people that will be added to the Asian population between 2015 and 2050
• 525 million - the number of people in the Asian middle class in 2009
• 3.2 billion - the number of people projected to be in the Asian middle class in 2030
• 108 million - the number of tonnes by which Asian demand for meat will increase between 2006 and 2030
• 1956 -The year the first Green Revolution began
• 2012 -The year food prices hit their highest point since 1974
• 2050 -The year by which global food production must have risen by 60% from 2006 levels in order to meet demand
• 2× - the amount that Asian food consumption will increase between 2007 and 2050