April 2016

1. Overview

Food, Agriculture and Forestry (FAF) sector has been an important and strategic sector in many ASEAN countries, and a major source of employment and incomes for a large proportion of their population. ASEAN is a major producer and supplier of grains, particularly rice, and the world’s largest producer of palm oil and natural rubber. ASEAN has also grown rapidly the amount of livestock in recent years. The forestry sector has also provided timber and timber products to the global market, and ASEAN is among the world's major producers and exporters of fish products.

Rapid economic growth in ASEAN has a magnified effect on not only the level of overall demand for food, agriculture, forestry and fishery products but also the level of interest for food safety and quality as well as for composition of food products. It increases demand for better food quality, better hygiene and diversified food products. On the supply side, the natural resource of FAF is threatened by a range of internal factors, deforestation, soil erosion and degradation of watersheds, rivers and waterways etc., and by external factors, particularly by the effects of climate change. These factors now threaten ASEAN’s current position as a region with high levels of food security and a net exporter of food, industrial crops and forestry products.

Globalization and regional integration not only open up access to larger regional and global markets, but also expose domestic producers to intensified competition from more technologically sophisticated, better endowed foreign competitors. In this setting, the small producers, who dominate the FAF sector, can survive only if they can meet the higher market standards, adopt new technologies, and undertake changes to be competitive.

Under these circumstances, the joint declaration “ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together” adopted at the ASEAN Summit in November 2015 states the Vision for the FAF sector as “a competitive, inclusive, resilient and sustainable Food, Agriculture, and Forestry sector integrated with the global economy, based on a single market and production base contributing to food and nutrition security, and prosperity in the ASEAN Community.”

To achieve this Vision for the FAF sector, ASEAN Member States will jointly act to benefit from the opportunities and confront the major challenges in the priority areas of cooperation composed of the five identified interventions as follows: (i) enhancing trade facilitation and economic integration; (ii) strengthening cooperation and capacity for sustainable production; (iii) enhancing agricultural productivity; (iv) increasing investment in agricultural science and technology; and (v) ensuring the involvement of agricultural producers in globalisation process.

2. Japan’s cooperation for the FAF Sector

Under the framework of AMAF+3 (ASEAN+3 Ministers’ Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry), Japan has worked to strengthen the food security through productivity improvement and production enhancement in the FAF sector. In order to address the emerging challenges of food security in the region, Japan will continue to be active in implementing cooperation projects under this framework.

First of all, for the purpose of enhancing agricultural productivities, Japan has been implementing a human resource development project, ‘Project for Strengthening Capacity Building in Agriculture Sector in ASEAN Countries Phase 2 (CB Project 2)’. The CB Project 2 has been conducting various training courses to extension officers and administrative officers, based upon the reality that majority of farmers are small-scale. Furthermore, this project organized seminars to contribute to capacity building in agricultural sector among ASEAN member states, such as seminar for disseminate ASEAN GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) and seminar on obtaining better understanding of concept of Food Value Chain.

One of the most important cooperation projects is called APTERR (ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve), which is a regional cooperation standing on humanitarian ground with professional and business operational bases. This organization was established to secure food security in an emergency caused by temporary and large scale calamity. APTERR is a mutual assistance system to provide necessary quantity of rice flexibly and effectively to rice-needy people. The primary function of APTERR is to strengthen regional food security with rice reserve to cope with food shortage due to temporary natural disaster or man-made calamity.

Another project related to food security is called AFSIS (ASEAN Food Security Information System), which is aimed to strengthen food security in the region through the systematic collection, analysis and dissemination of food security related information. Under its 1st Phase, it was intended to enhance regional food security information system and increase capacities of Member States in providing required information. The additional elements including Early Warning Information Report, Agricultural Commodity Outlook report and Mutual Technical Cooperation were included in the 2nd Phase.

Japan has been taking initiatives for APTERR and AFSIS activities. For APTERR, since its pilot project has started in 2004, Japan has continuously contributed around nine million US dollars, which was around eighty percent of the total financial expenses. In addition, Japan is a major contributor of rice for acute emergency release (Tier 3), accounting for around 40% of the total quantity of rice released by APTERR.

For AFSIS, Japan has contributed a total of about five million US dollars as the sole donor of financial resources since the start of the project in 2003. Japan has also dispatched experts from 2011 and supported the operation of the AFSIS secretariat. It has encouraged the efforts of the secretariat to manage the system independently.

Japan also initiated new type of cooperation for the establishment and strengthening of Food Value Chain (FVC) in the region. The establishment of FVC with public-private-partnership is a new endeavor in Japan-ASEAN cooperation. It will be beneficial for both food-related industries and farmers by adding values to agricultural production, storage, processing, distribution and consumption.

It will increase value addition to agro-food industries and farmers’ income, and finally facilitate economic growth in the region. It will also greatly contribute to reducing food losses and wastes at each stage of food value chain for improving food security.

Japan has already launched bilateral policy dialogue for establishing FVC with several ASEAN countries. For example, Agricultural Ministers of Vietnam and Japan exchanged their views and agreed to the Japan-Viet Nam Medium to Long Term Vision on Agriculture Cooperation for strengthening FVC in August 2015. As a result of such bilateral policy dialogue, we expect that food-related infrastructure such as cold chains and business environment for investment will be developed in the region. Japan will extend such efforts to other ASEAN countries.

In addition, Japan has newly initiated “Project for Promotion of Human Resource Development in Cooperation with Universities in ASEAN countries.” In this project, experts from Japanese food-related companies have given practical lectures. The project is so far well received by participating countries. The project is expected to contribute to strengthening FVC in the ASEAN region.

Japan will continue to further strengthen its cooperation for the FAF Sector by working closely with ASEAN+3 member states towards realizing the vison for the FAF sector stated in the “ASEAN 2025: Foreign Ahead Together.”