Tag Archives: Croplife asia

Latest News, Press Release

CropLife Asia supports FAO World Food Day call on “Right to Foods for a Better Life & a Better Future” / Need for greater AgTech adoption to meet SDG2 challenge highlighted

Singapore, 16 October 2024 – As the world marks World Food Day, CropLife Asia is taking the opportunity to highlight how enhancing agricultural productivity through innovative technologies and sustainable agricultural practices can help drive greater food security and accessibility to a healthy diet in Asia-Pacific. The challenge of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger (SDG2) remains daunting in the region and around the world.

According to the United Nations (UN) 2024 State of Food Security & Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, Asia remains home to the largest number of those facing hunger globally at 384.5 million and accounts for a larger share of the number of food-insecure people in the world at 1.18 billion. Furthermore, a healthy diet remains out of reach for 2.83 billion people worldwide with 1.66 billion facing this challenge in Asia alone as highlighted in the SOFI reporti. The cost of a healthy diet has risen since 2017 globally with the cost being the second highest in Asia at 4.20 PPP dollarsii.

“This World Food Day, we must work together to ensure that the right to safe, nutritious and affordable food remains accessible to all,” said Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director of CropLife Asia. “With 1 out of 11 people facing hunger globally, the need to ensure food systems that are more safe, secure and sustainable is more important than ever before. Harnessing the power of advanced and innovative plant science technologies can help drive agricultural productivity while protecting the world around us – and is an increasingly critical component in realizing the promise of SDG2.”

Plant science innovation such as plant biotechnology and genome editing along with crop protection products play an important role in ensuring a stable food supply, managing and protecting natural resources as well as driving national economies. Biotech crops have increased global food, feed and fibre production by nearly 1 billion tonnes from 1996 to 2020iii. These innovations also support sustainability by producing crops that address climate change impacts such as drought and flooding while utilizing nutrients more efficiently and delivering better nutrition to humans and livestock.

About CropLife Asia
CropLife Asia is a non-profit society and the regional organization of CropLife International, the voice of the global plant science industry. We advocate a safe, secure food supply, and our vision is food security enabled by innovative agriculture. CropLife Asia supports the work of 15 member associations across the continent and is led by six member companies at the forefront of crop protection, seeds and/or biotechnology research and development.

For more information, visit us at www.croplifeasia.org.
For more information please contact:
Duke Hipp
Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Partnerships
CropLife Asia
Tel: (65) 6221 1615
duke.hipp@croplifeasia.org

i FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2024. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 – Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd1254en
ii FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2024. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 – Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd1254en
iii Brookes G. (2022). Farm income and production impacts from the use of genetically modified (GM) crop technology 1996-2020. GM Crops & Food, 13(1), 171-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645698.2022.2105626

Latest News

CropLife Asia joins the call to #BreakTheBias this International Women’s Day

Over 65% of region’s female farmers cite gender disparity as a key issue in new research

By: CropLife Asia

SINGAPORE, March 8, 2022 — This International Women’s Day, CropLife Asia is calling on fellow food and agriculture stakeholders across Asia to #BreakTheBias in addressing gender disparity issues that persist in the region. The continuing inequalities between women and men are an obstacle not only to agriculture and rural development but also to achieving sustainable and equitable food systems.

In 2021 research commissioned by CropLife Asia and conducted by leading agricultural and animal health market research company Kynetec, over 65% of female farmers surveyed from Southeast Asia’s biggest agricultural-producing countries revealed that they have experienced gender inequality in farming. The highest number of farmers sharing this perspective came from Thailand (87%) and Indonesia (73%). Thai and Indonesian female farmers noted the lack of access to capital, financing and resources as key areas where they faced inequality. Additionally, those in Indonesia also cited lack of access and training opportunities as another area of gender disparity.

These findings and others came to light through the 2021 ASEAN Farmer Sustainability & Resilience Study, a research initiative to learn more about how regional farmers are coping in the face of growing food production challenges. Through the initiative, Kynetec surveyed 525 corn, rice, fruit and vegetable farmers across Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

“The safe, secure and sustainable supply of food we depend on in Asia would not be possible without female farmers,” said Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director of CropLife Asia. “While these women play an essential role in regional food systems, they are often at a disadvantage compared to their male counterparts with access to resources, services and opportunities. Ensuring our region’s female farmers are enabled and empowered to realize their full potential is a responsibility shared by all of Asia’s food and agriculture stakeholders.

The Southeast Asia region has more than 100 million smallholder farmers, and the agriculture sector employs 26.7% of all working women on average in ASEAN[i]. However, these percentages likely underestimate women’s full contribution to agriculture as their work is not always captured fully in official statistics. Although women are seen as the backbone of the rural economy, they only receive a fraction of the land, credit, inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizers, agricultural training, and information as compared to men. As part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a need to ensure that no woman is left behind, including rural women working in agriculture.

Empowering and investing in rural women has shown to significantly increase productivity, reduce hunger and malnutrition, and improve rural livelihoods – not just for women but for everyone. Because of cultural attitudes, discrimination and a lack of recognition for their role in food production, women often do not enjoy benefits of extension services and training in new crop varieties and technologies. The vast majority of studies have found that differences in yields between men and women exist not because women are less skilled but because they have less access to inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizers and equipment. The yield gap between men and women farmers averages around 20-30%[ii]. The outcome of that yield gap would be monumental, boasting a 2.5–4% increase in total agricultural production in developing nations and reducing hunger by 100–150 million people.[iii]

More findings from the 2021 ASEAN Farmer Sustainability & Resilience Study are scheduled to be released this year.

About CropLife Asia

CropLife Asia is a non-profit society and the regional organization of CropLife International, the voice of the global plant science industry. We advocate a safe, secure food supply, and our vision is food security enabled by innovative agriculture. CropLife Asia supports the work of 15 member associations across the continent and is led by six member companies at the forefront of crop protection, seeds and/or biotechnology research and development. For more information, visit us at www.croplifeasia.org. 

For more information please contact:
Duke Hipp
Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Partnerships
CropLife Asia
Tel: (65) 6221 1615
duke.hipp@croplifeasia.org

[i] Strengthening Women’s Entrepreneurship in Agriculture in ASEAN countries © OECD 2021
[ii] Farmingfirst.org/gender-gap video, source:FAO
[iii] https://www.transformationholdings.com/agriculture/investing-in-women-smallholder-farmers/

Feature Section, Latest News

CROPLIFE ASIA ECHOES FAO CALL TO TRANSFORM OUR FOOD SYSTEMS

Highlights need for agricultural innovation in addressing Asia’s growing food security crisis / Helping reach region’s hungry, undernourished

Singapore, 13 July 2021 – With the release of the United Nations (UN) 2021 State of Food Security & Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, CropLife Asia highlighted the need for the region’s food value chain stakeholders to work together in transforming our food systems to better enable food security, improved nutrition, and affordable healthy diets for all.

The challenge of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 of ‘zero hunger’ globally by 2030 has grown even more complicated with the broad impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this latest UN report, it is estimated that the number of people affected by hunger worldwide in 2020 was between 720 and 811 million people. This is a marked increase of over 100 million more people than in 2019. The prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) has also climbed up to around 9.9 percent in 2020 compared to 8.4 percent the previous year. This new report also confirms a sadly familiar refrain for Asia: our region is failing to deliver food security for far too many – particularly among the more vulnerable parts of society. Asia continues to be home to the greatest number of undernourished people with 418 million suffering from hunger in 2020.

“The challenge of feeding Asia and the world requires us to explore all possible solutions. This can only be achieved through greater collaboration with others, as multi-stakeholder approaches are crucial for transformation of our food systems.” said Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director, CropLife Asia. “The plant science industry champions innovation in both crop protection and plant biotech, as well as precision and digital agriculture solutions to benefit both people and the planet.”

“The innovative technologies of the plant science industry have a key role to play, but it is only one part of the solution,” Dr. Tan added. “Ensuring that an ample supply of affordable and nutritious food reaches those who need it most is a shared responsibility. Farmers’ access to innovation is an increasingly crucial component to combatting food insecurity in Asia and around the world.”

Global crop losses due to pests and disease are a major contributor to global food loss and waste. These losses would be twice as high without the use of crop protection products. Crop losses can be further reduced through more effective crop protection stewardship practices. Without innovations such as crop protection products and plant biotechnology, global pre-harvest crop losses could double(1). Meanwhile, biotech crops are developed with improved traits such as increased yield, better resistance to pests and/or improved nutrition, among others. These traits are crucial tools that enable farmers to produce more food using fewer resources to feed our growing world.

(1) http://www.croplifeamerica.org/crop-protection/benefits/increase-food-production

About CropLife Asia

CropLife Asia is a non-profit society and the regional organization of CropLife International, the voice of the global plant science industry.  We advocate a safe, secure food supply, and our vision is food security enabled by innovative agriculture.  CropLife Asia supports the work of 15 member associations across the continent and is led by eight member companies at the forefront of crop protection, seeds and/or biotechnology research and development.  For more information, visit us at www.croplifeasia.org.

For more information, please contact:

Duke Hipp
Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Partnerships
CropLife Asia
Tel: +65 6221 1615
duke.hipp@croplifeasia.org