ADB's Work in Agriculture and Food Security
Asian agriculture is crucial to the region’s development. One in three of developing Asia’s workers are still employed in agriculture. But the sector is beset by low productivity and incomes. An estimated four out of five people living below the poverty line in the region are in rural areas. This means that raising agricultural productivity is critical to poverty reduction and advancing the region’s economic transformation.
Agriculture plays a central role in safeguarding the region’s food supply and achieving the second UN Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030. In addition, agriculture is absolutely central to achieving regional food security, and the promotion of sustainable agriculture. But agriculture in developing Asia faces challenges from changing consumer demand, demographics, inefficient value chains, climate change, and water shortages.
Food Security
Despite the region’s growing prosperity, malnourishment persists. In the past two decades, developing Asia has made significant progress in its fight against hunger, lifting more than 200 million people from undernourishment. This progress is impressive, but more than 300 million in the region are still food insecure.
ADB takes a comprehensive multi-sector approach to food security and sustainable development. The bank is working with its DMCs to help integrate food production, processing, marketing, and distribution networks to strengthen resilience and efficiency of food and agricultural value chains. The bank also aims to boost food and agricultural employment opportunities to help raise living standards for the poor, women, and vulnerable groups.
ADB understands the importance of improved food policies, standards, institutional support, and partnerships. Other issues in the region that are holding back food security include: low food productivity; lack of access to rural finance; infrastructure and technology; the threat of climate change; and volatile food prices, among others.
Productivity
To keep pace with population growth and urbanization, food production in the region must increase through improved land and labor productivity, along with access to financing and agricultural inputs. Measures are needed to substantially increase agricultural investment, underpinned by national and international policies and support. Technological and ICT solutions must be applied to boost long-term productivity and efficiently integrate farmers along the value chains. Investments in nutrition-smart technologies and practices enabling farmers to decide on what and how to produce are likewise critical in addressing malnutrition while improving farmers’ income. ADB also supports nature-based solutions and innovations that rehabilitate and restore the environment to support improved and sustainable food production.
As urbanization rapidly increases in the region, supplying growing cities with adequate and affordable food is a major challenge, requiring massive investment in food distribution, storage, agri-logistics, and marketing. As Asian economies become richer and more urbanized, food demand is not only increasing, but also moving towards animal products that are much more resource intensive and environmentally unfriendly. Meeting this growing regional demand for meat poses many problems, such as the contribution to climate change from widespread livestock farming. ADB is exploring opportunities for plant-based meat, alternative protein sources, and sustainable environment-friendly livestock production.
Water
Asia also faces an acute water shortage. By 2030, demand for water in the region is anticipated to exceed supply by 40%. Since 80% of water is used for agricultural production, lack of water seriously hampers food production and security. To grow more food with less water in the region, ADB is promoting the adoption of more efficient and sustainable ways of managing this precious resource.
Value Chains
Strengthening the links between food producers and their consumers creates a win-win for all players in the food supply chain. This involves constructing rural roads, providing power, and developing market infrastructure, including strengthening the role of information and communication technologies. Asia's increasingly complex food chains demand regional action to improve food safety and traceability. Greater Mekong Subregion countries are addressing this by cooperating on better food handling and inspection systems. ADB and partners are promoting the integration of innovative technologies to better connect producers with consumers and markets, reduce post-harvest loss, and overall improve value chain efficiency.
Climate Resilience and Environmental Sustainability
Climate change is already impacting markedly on agriculture and food production in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific. Rising temperatures, flooding rivers, melting glaciers, and other extreme weather events will greatly challenge regional food security. As warming of 2°C continues, crop production is expected to decrease significantly, particularly rice, wheat, and maize production. Not only will cereal consumption patterns be affected but the price of feed will also increase, which will increase the price of animal products.
As a result, climate change will place an additional burden on the region, which can easily undermine development and impair progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
It is important for countries to effectively manage their natural resources and harness the use of renewable energy to ensure sustainability and resilience, and to mitigate the effects of climate-related disasters on agriculture. ADB builds climate change resilience and adaptation into its agriculture projects. For example, some projects focus on agricultural systems that need less water, other projects address reducing the carbon footprint of certain types of agricultural production.
Food Price Volatility
ADB is committed to reducing the fluctuating price of food. When world cereal prices rose by more than 80% in 2007-08, global food stocks plummeted to levels not seen in decades. Coupled with the global economic slowdown and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, surging food prices pushed an estimated 100 million more people into hunger, raising the total number of undernourished people globally to over one billion. ADB economists predict that a 10% rise in domestic food price inflation in developing Asia could push 64 million more Asians into poverty. ADB and its partners are working to implement short-, medium- and long-term solutions to help prevent another possible food crisis.
ADB supports research that boosts agricultural productivity, incomes, and livelihoods. This includes studies to reduce yield gaps, increase crop yield potential and ways to reduce crop losses during harvest, storage, or processing. ADB also works with international agricultural research groups on issues like stress tolerant varieties and better crop management.
Multi-Sector Approach
The food security challenge is a broad concern that needs to be approached from a multisectoral standpoint.
How other ADB areas of operation relate to food security
| Infrastructure |
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| Environment |
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| Regional cooperation and/or integration |
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| Finance |
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| Education |
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| Agriculture |
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| Health |
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| Disaster and emergency assistance |
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Operational Plan for Agriculture and Natural Resources
Scaling-up of agriculture operations and an increased emphasis on natural resources management are actions needed to address food security concerns across Asia and the Pacific. Agriculture and food security should be viewed in the context of the broader economic transformation in Asia and the Pacific.
Operational Priorities
Strategy 2030 sets seven operational priorities, each having its own operational plan. The operational plans contribute to ADB’s vision to achieve prosperity, inclusion, resilience, and sustainability, and are closely aligned with Strategy 2030 principles and approaches.
