Three important documents were adopted as the week-long (August 18-25) APEC Food Security Week and High-level Policy Dialogue on Enhancing Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Response to Climate Change wrapped up on Friday.

The Food Security Week was held in Can Tho City as part of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Year in Viet Nam.

Addressing press conference on the event, Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, listed the three documents: Food Security and Climate Change Multi-Year Action Plan 2018-20 (MYAP); Action Plan on Rural-Urban Development to strengthen Food Security and Quality Growth (AP); and the Can Tho Statement on Enhancing Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Response to Climate Change.

The MYAP is intended to implement the Multi-Year APEC Programme on Food Security and Climate Change, fulfilling the APEC Food Security Roadmap toward 2020 and Bogor Goals 2020, Doanh said.

It aims to enhance the capacities of APEC economies in developing and disseminating approaches to address the food security-climate change relationship in the short, medium and long term, he added.

Doanh said the Action Plan would build on the Strategic Framework on Rural-Urban Development to Strengthen Food Security and Quality Growth, fulfilling the APEC Food Security Roadmap towards 2020 as well as the 2014 APEC Connectivity Blueprint.

It will address challenges associated with rural-urban development and food security by pursuing four concurrent areas determined in the Strategic Framework: inclusive economic development, sustainable natural resource management, social aspects and administrative efficiency, he said.

The Can Tho Statement on Enhancing Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Response to Climate Change states that “food security is and will remain a critical issue for the international community in general and the APEC region in particular.”

It highlights the significant role of APEC economies in today’s agricultural value chain and the importance of trade in achieving food security.

It recognises the linkages between food security, poverty, climate change and sustainable development. Sustainable and resilient agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries will contribute to advancing a number of the Sustainable Development Goals by enhancing food security, rural development, poverty eradication, community empowerment, economic development, environmental protection and adaption to climate change, it says.

The statement seeks to address key issues related to food security through sustainable agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries, including addressing the food security-climate change relationship, sustainable natural resources management, sustainable rural-urban development, facilitation of trade and investment in agriculture and regional food markets, food loss and food waste management.

The 2017 APEC food security week in Can Tho provided important outcomes for member economies to act on towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Agenda by 2030, Doanh said.

The MYAP, AP and the Can Tho Statement will be reported at the APEC Ministerial Meeting and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Da Nang in November, he added.

Food security has become an increasing concern among APEC economies. At the ministerial level, APEC ministers responsible for agriculture and food met for the first time in Niigata, Japan, in 2010 and issued the Niigata Declaration on APEC Food Security—the first comprehensive APEC plan for promoting regional food security.

Subsequent APEC ministerial meetings on food security were held biennially in Kazan, Russia (2012), Beijing, China (2014), and Piura, Peru (2016), which led to the Kazan Declaration, Beijing Declaration, and Piura Declaration outlining APEC’s new plans for tackling food security, respectively.

Given the worsening impacts of climate change, it was decided that the Food Security Week would be held every year since 2016.

The 2018 APEC Food Security Week will be held next August in Papa New Guinea with a focus on enhancing food security and sustainable agriculture through ICT in response to climate change, promoting women in agriculture and fisheries, and sustainable fisheries management and development.— VNS