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SINGAPORE: From Pakistan and Malaysia to Australia and New Zealand, an unprecedented freeze in the movement of people, goods and services is underway, and it is understandable.
COVID-19 has increasing control over the Asia-Pacific, and regional governments are reacting in the best way they know how to stop the spread of the diabolic pandemic.
In the vicinity of Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, there are strict quarantine, border closures and nationwide closures for non-essential companies.
Although northeast countries like Japan and South Korea have yet to impose such movements, the regional and international drum to further restrict movement is only increasing.
But in the rush to block borders and limit interaction, it is imperative that these measures to tackle a crisis do not unintentionally create a new one.
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The tenuous balance of food security in Asia, and in Southeast Asia in particular, is highly dependent on regional producers’ access to key agricultural raw materials, such as quality food, seeds, crop protection products and fertilizers.
Disruptions in the availability of these due to border blockages, movement restrictions and retail closings can present challenges in the continuity of food supply.
People buying food at a supermarket in Singapore amid fears of a supply disruption after Malaysia announced the closure of its borders, (Photo: Reuters / Edgar Su)
As the spring planting season approaches, it is more important than ever to ensure the uninterrupted and timely cross-border movement of tools that enable farmers to grow safe and nutritious food.
THE FOCUS ON FOOD SECURITY
It is not that food security has been forgotten in the midst of the regional reaction of COVID-19, far from it.
Almost every day there are new assurances from governments and policy makers across the region that there will continue to be a large food supply and that there are provisions to meet consumer demand.
In mid-March, Singapore announced that it “has food reserves for months.” More recently, the Philippines and Malaysia have publicly announced that they have sufficient food supplies, with the latter adding that it has enough rice to feed its population for the next two and a half months.
But as the COVID-19 freeze now enters the second quarter of the year, for how long can those guarantees continue to be given?
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Beyond existing reserves across the region, new agricultural production will be essential, and the best way to do this is to ensure that farmers in our region are equipped to produce the crops we depend on.
However, there are signs that the freeze is already taking its toll in Malaysia, where the unintended consequences of the government’s Motion Control Order (MCO) are affecting producers there.
In late March, CNA reported on frustration among national vegetable producers who now face disruptions and new difficulties in purchasing supplies and access to labor, created or aggravated by the order, which is now in effect until April 14.
A morning market in SS2, Petaling Jaya, was ordered to close during the Movement Control Order. (Photo: Tho Xin Yi)
The Chairman of the Malaysian Vegetable Farmers Association, Tan So Tiok, told CNA that with the MCO in place, supply has been reduced by 30 percent.
There is also anecdotal evidence that regional farmers’ access to markets has been severely affected due to restrictive movement policies.
Producers in India and Malaysia have been forced to essentially throw away vegetables and fruits as a result of disruption of transport in the food supply chain.
BIG CHALLENGES FACING SMALL HOLDERS
According to a 2016 Singapore Business Council for Sustainable Development document, of the roughly 520 million small farmers around the world, nearly 85 percent of them call Asia home and around 100 million live in Southeast Asia.
These small producers in our region also face a series of unique challenges: problems of property rights, lack of access to markets and financing, and acute climate change, to name a few.
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Even outside of this COVID-19 pandemic, various pressures on climate change experienced by smallholders in the region are becoming more extreme. Erratic weather patterns that produce droughts and floods across the region continue to wreak havoc on producers.
Last year, the crucial monsoon rains on which many of Southeast Asia’s farmers depend came months late. This caused a severe drought: it left the Mekong River at its lowest level in 100 years, and rice farmers in the area were unable to plant their main crop.
In most cases, small regional producers also do not enjoy the same availability of technology as many of their counterparts in the west, and are limited to comparatively primitive farming methods.
Products and seeds for crop protection are fundamental components in conducting seasonal cycles with sowing, harvesting and production. Denying or delaying its availability to farmers would seriously affect the livelihoods of millions of Asian farmers and, in turn, regional food security.
Farmers stand on Hintha Kyun Island, which was their farmland before the riverbank collapsed into the river in Mawlamyine, Mon State, Myanmar, on September 18, 2019. (Photo: REUTERS / Ann Wang)
Without crop protection products alone, it is estimated that 40 percent of the world’s rice and corn crops could be lost each year and losses, while losses of fruits and vegetables could reach up to 50-90 percent .
Our regional food security depends heavily on these small farmers. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), small farmers produce up to 80 percent of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
These “food heroes” are the heart and backbone of the food supply value chain in our region.
THE CHALLENGE FACING SINGAPORE
Singapore has been a microcosm for trade policy and its possible repercussions across the Asia-Pacific region. With measures taken to guarantee a broad and diversified food supply, the country has been an exemplary model of pragmatic policy formulation in the face of the consequences of COVID-19.
But the give and take between Singapore and the rest of the region in the area of food security shows how fragile the balance is.
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Singapore depends not only on the continuous transport of food to the country, but also on the policy formulation of the exporting trading partner that allows it. If Malaysia, Vietnam or any other trading partner does not have the crops to export, then Singapore is left in a vulnerable position.
As Singapore’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chan Chun Sing, rightly pointed out in his recent speech to Parliament, ensuring that the national reserve is at an adequate level is a “dynamic task that requires constant vigilance over the fluid supply landscape. global”.
Meanwhile, the announcement of the “circuit breaker” by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about new national restrictive steps being implemented highlighted another dimension of this delicate balance.
Singapore houses strategic facilities operating in the manufacturing, research and development of crop protection chemicals critical to regional food security.
As additional measures are implemented, the operation of these critical facilities must also remain uninterrupted to help ensure that the crops on which Singapore and the region depend can be grown.
WHATS NEXT?
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has a valuable role to play regarding the fragile nature of regional food security and farmers’ access to quality seed and crop protection products, in particular at this time. consistent for Asia.
Miss Toh Yingying, 24, commercial manager of Yili Vegetation and Trading. He said that most days, Yili Farm visitors are a rarity given its remote location to Lim Chu Kang and the unpleasant smells of vegetable fertilizers permeating the farm. (Photo: TODAY / Najeer Yusof)
ASEAN economic ministers must work together to protect themselves from the national and regional food security consequences that closing factories, facilities and retail outlets that enable critical agricultural production would bring.
That crucial coordination between ministries and national borders is only one step, but it is a fundamental first step.
Beyond that, as limited movement policies and planned essential industrial exemptions are realized, it is invaluable to hear directly from farmers on the ground.
Just like “seeing something, saying something” has become a recognizable global mantra in relation to national security initiatives: creating a formal channel to listen to affected farmers in real time will help ensure that their collective voice is heard and that problems in the system can be addressed AND resolved quickly.
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Dr. Kanokwan Chodchoey is Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Seed Association. Dr. Siang Hee Tan is Executive Director of CropLife Asia.
