Food security and nutrition strengthening should be developed together with partner countries to maintain the region's food security stability, Distribution and Reserve Director at the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Rachmi Widiriani, said in a statement Sunday.
Within the forum held in Seoul, South Korea, he underlined APTERR's important role in ensuring regional food security, especially during emergency situations such as natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regional food security strengthening aligns with Indonesia's initiative, as the 2023 Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) chairman described within the ASEAN Leaders Declaration on Strengthening Food Security and Nutrition in Times of Crises.
According to Widiriani, APTERR can support food security in ASEAN and East Asia, including by facilitating trade, ensuring logistical and supply chain smoothness, and expediting food and agriculture delivery from upstream to downstream.
To strengthen food security in the long term, ASEAN will develop a strong food and agriculture sector through digitalization promotion, innovative financing, climate resilience, and improving small-scale farmers' capacity.
Next, Indonesia also encourages the development of an early warning system to predict food security conditions in the future.
This system not only focuses on the aspect of food production but also considers food price volatility, agriculture input supply, the food consumption situation, and other factors.
This early warning system is expected to be able to support APTERR's implementation so that it can also improve effectiveness and expedite APTERR's rice reserve release.
He noted that the development of this early warning system can be done through the ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS).
APTERR is a working group under the framework of ASEAN and three partner countries (Japan, South Korea, and China) that focuses on the development of food reserves to strengthen regional food security.
APTERR's main goal is to strengthen food security, alleviate poverty, and alleviate bad nutrition for its members without distorting normal trade.
Meanwhile, its collective goal is to ensure food security in the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) region.
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Translator: Kuntum Khaira R, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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