ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve
ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve
*This article is one of the El Niño and La Niña series
- Part 1 -
El Niño and La Niña are two opposing natural climate patterns, which is caused by changes of the Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere. They both tend to pose significant impacts to agricultural production and practices, climate, livelihoods, and economy. More specifically, the phenomena affect rice cultivation in the ASEAN+3 region where rice is a staple food for millions of people. As we are powerless to stop the relentless occurrence of El Niño and La Niña, it is essential to mitigate their harmful effects.
The increased intensity of extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, droughts, and floods has expanded disaster risks in the ASEAN Plus Three region, which subsequently threatened people's lives and livelihoods across the region. Throughout the year 2022, natural disasters frequently occurred in several countries in the region, mostly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam, China, and Japan, which were categorised as very high natural disaster risk countries. Afterwards, natural disasters exacerbated people’s struggles, leading to regional cooperations.
Food security is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as “when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Its framework consists of four elements: food availability, access to food, the stability of food supplies and price, and food utilisation, including food security and nutrition. In a global perspective, most of ASEAN Plus Three (APT) countries are generally seen as fertile countries which can produce a variety of food for domestic consumption and export to the world market. However, food security situations in the APT today have been vulnerable so far.
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