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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Asia faces challenge of feeding 5b by 2030: ADB Bangladesh -Sangbad Sangstha

Asia faces challenge of feeding 5b by 2030: ADB Bangladesh -Sangbad Sangstha

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published Published on Feb 4, 2013   modified Modified on Feb 4, 2013
-New Age

Asia’s ability to keep food prices in check and ensure long-term regional food security will require the region’s farm to market supply chains to become more efficient and cost-effective, says a new Asian Development Bank  study.

The Study titled ‘The Quiet Revolution in Staple Food Value Chains: Enter the Dragon, the Elephant and the Tiger’, was produced by ADB and the International food Policy Research Institute in response to the 2008 spike in food prices, analyses domestic rice and potato supply chains in Bangladesh, India and People’s Republic of China.

Value chain transformation is crucial for ensuring that food prices in Asia’s cities — home to half the region’s people — remain affordable, and the study calls for regional food security to be placed front and centre in the 21st century policy agenda.

‘Asia faces a formidable challenge of feeding 5 billion people by 2030,’ said Bindu Lohani, ADB vice-president for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development.

‘Rising populations and incomes, resource degradation, and climate change will keep putting upward pressure on food prices, requiring vast improvements to ensure adequate, affordable food supplies.’

It finds that the rapid modernisation of staple food chains in Asia has allowed farmers to increase control over what they produce, and to whom they sell. The transformation has been particularly dramatic in the PRC, with modern rice mills increasingly buying direct from farmers, cutting out middlemen.

The study notes that the cost of energy, labour and farm inputs like fertiliser and seeds remain substantial, and can quickly translate into higher retail food prices.

In Delhi and Dhaka, power accounts for about 75 per cent of cold storage operational costs, leaving potato prices vulnerable to energy price shifts.

‘The changes in food demand, driven by urbanisation and increasing incomes of consumers, are creating important opportunities for agricultural development and rural poverty reduction in Asia,’ said Bart Minten, one of the authors of the study and Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI.

There is no ‘silver bullet’ to address the challenges facing staples value changes, meaning a variety of policy and programme measures will be required to stimulate the efficiency of staples markets. Given Asia’s widely different zones, no ‘one size fits all’ approach will work, requiring tailored solutions.

Improving post-harvest productivity in areas such as processing, storage and distribution, and directing government subsidies and support to the neediest farmers and regions are central to more efficient supply chains, which ultimately affect prices, the study says.

New Age, 2 February, 2013, http://newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2013-02-02&nid=38795#.UQ98Bzf-Xtl


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