ASEAN Needs To Form Committee To Focus On Food Crisis Risk

By Salawaty Supardi PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), April 20 (Bernama) -- The world needs to produce at least 50 per cent more food to feed nine billion people by 2020, according to a World Bank report released on April 1. The report said efforts were met with constraints following world climate changes and it was feared this might affect total agricultural area of up to 25 per cent, thus causing a risk of food crisis worldwide. Recognising this, Malaysia as ASEAN 2015 Chairman should bring up the food crisis issue as one of the crucial points during the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur city and Langkawi island next week. In making the recommendation, National Professor Council (Agriculture and Food Cluster) head, Prof Ghizan Saleh said although relatively, ASEAN was much affected by the food crisis, the situation could worsen if no immediate measures were taken. Speaking to Bernama recently, he said one of the issues that could be raised during the summit was the establishment of a special committee at ministerial level to discuss food crisis. "The committee too, if established, will serve to find solutions to ensure the region's population does not face hunger," said Dr Ghizan, who is also deputy vice-chancellor of a local college, Kolej Universiti Agrosains Malaysia. Elaborating, he said, to increase food production, ASEAN member countries should focus on technology, innovation, research and development which could later be shared among member countries. He said it could not be denied that food supplies in ASEAN were shrinking as a result of the economic transformation of countries in the region which moved from agriculture to industrial. "Something must be done to restore the strength of this region as the major producer of the world's main food, especially rice," he said. Formed on Aug 8, 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, ASEAN membership has now expanded to include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. --BERNAMA