Manilla – Increased investments in agricultural research and development, irrigation, and rural infrastructure can end hunger in Asia and the Pacific, according to a new report commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released today. The report finds total annual agricultural investments of US$ 78.6 billion are needed to reduce the proportion of hungry people in Asia and the Pacific below 5 percent of the total population, the threshold for eliminating hunger by 2030 set by the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and World Food Programme. Meeting this investment level will require an additional US$ 36.9 billion annually on top of the projected current level of investments of US$ 41.7 billion annually.
“Increased investment is absolutely necessary to attain food security in Asia and the Pacific region,” said Akmal Siddiq, chief, rural development and food security thematic group, Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC), ADB.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) commissioned the study, Ending Hunger in Asia and the Pacific by 2030: An Assessment of Investment Requirements in Agriculture, to assess the potential for agricultural investments and policies to meet current challenges and end hunger in Asia and the Pacific. Research was conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with ADB, using IFPRI’s International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) linked with computable general equilibrium models to capture both agricultural and economy-wide impacts of climate change and investment. The study is being launched – along with two related reports – during the Rural Development and Food Security Forum at ADB headquarters in Manila.
The report highlights investments will need to confront the effects of climate change. Climate change is projected to have negative impacts on agriculture up to 2030, reducing yields and production compared to a no-climate change scenario. These production losses are projected to induce increases in food prices, as well as reduce income and food consumption, particularly for lower income groups. As a result, climate change is projected to slow the reduction in hunger in the Asia Pacific region, increasing the number of hungry people by 38 million in 2030 compared to a scenario with no climate change scenario. After 2030 the negative effects of climate change on agriculture become much greater.
The report analyzes three types of investments, including investment in agricultural R&D, investment to improve water management through expansion in irrigation and increases in basin-level water use efficiency, and rural infrastructure investments to reduce marketing costs and post-harvest losses to see if they can counteract climate change and reduce hunger more rapidly.
The results show that increased investments in agricultural productivity growth, irrigation and water use efficiency, and rural infrastructure are highly effective in improving agricultural production, reducing prices, raising incomes, and reducing hunger. Agricultural R&D and rural infrastructure have particularly large impacts on reducing hunger. “Simultaneous increase of these investments can effectively end hunger in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Siddiq.
In addition to the investments assessed in these reports, investments in health, nutrition, clean water and sanitation, and education are essential to address hunger and childhood malnutrition. Moreover, even with rapid economic growth in Asia and the Pacific, some of the poor will be reached slowly, if at all, and many of them will remain vulnerable to economic reversals. These groups can be reached through income transfers, or through safety nets that will alleviate their nutritional needs and socioeconomic conditions during short-term shocks.
The report on investment requirements for food security in Asia and the Pacific region is one of three related ADB reports on food security being released today. The other two reports provide more focused examinations of specific country contexts, with one analyzing the investments and policies needed to achieve food security in Indonesia, and the other on the trends and impacts from the application of information and communication technologies in the agricultural sector in rural China. All three reports are available on the ADB website.
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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries Visit: www.ifpri.org