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APEC Project Completion ReportSECTION A: Project profile

Project number & title: ATC 01 2015S – APEC Food Security Training and Workshop

Project time period: Mar. 1, 2015 - Dec. 31, 2015 Date submitted: Mar. 8, 2016

Committee / WG / Fora: ATCWG

Project Overseer Name / Organization / Economy:

Prof. Fengying Nie, Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

SECTION B: Project report and reflection

1. Project description: In 3-4 sentences, please describe the project and its main objectives.

APEC Food Security Training and Workshop was organized with an overall objective to enhance the research capacity of young researchers on food security study and to build a regional platform to exchange ideas on food security issues. The specific objectives include exploring the assessment methods, policies and impact evaluation for food security; discussed different topics like food value chain, market and trade, food security and nutrition, resilience and foresights; shared good practices of APEC economies to ensure food security; and organize an online discussion for reginal food security and nutrition.

2. Meeting objectives: Describe how the project met each of its proposed objectives. Please outline any challenges you may have encountered in delivering the activity.

Twelve experts, came from international organizations such as FAO and GFAR and from research institutions and universities in Japan, Chinese Taipei, Australia, and China made speeches on “comprehensive food security measurement”, “assessment of food loss and waste”, ”smallholders’ market participation”, “multidimensional poverty and food security”, “experiences from FSN food security and nutrition”, ”financial support for poverty reduction” and “foresights for food security”. 64 young researchers from 12 APEC economies and other 8 economies joined the training. The workshop summarized some regional experiences on how to deal with climate change and food security problems in an interactive roundtable discussion. Online discussion was co-organized by FSN of FAO and more than 60 valuable contributions from all over the world were received. After the training, the delegates also cheerfully visited the modern agricultural demonstration park and the domestic agricultural library in CAAS, which helped them to understand intuitively about the Chinese development on agricultural technology.

3. Evaluation: Describe the process undertaken to evaluate the project upon completion. (e.g. evaluation through participant surveys, peer reviews of outputs, assessments against indicators, statistics demonstrating use of outputs etc.). Provide analysis of results of evaluations conducted and where possible include information on impacts on gender. Evaluation data needs to be included as an appendix.

Number of young researchers received training; Feedback of participants on the workshop; number of contributions of the online discussion, and number of follow up actions and cooperation are used as indicators to evaluate the training. As mentioned above, 64 young researchers from 12 APEC economies and other 8 economies joined the training. Among them, 34 are female. 60 contributions received from 23 economies in the online discussion on FSN of FAO. There are 5 follow up activities based on this training. In the workshop, young professionals were divided into six groups to practice the use of foresight in six different scenarios, namely rural stations/ghettos, rural poles, rural continuums, rural niches, urban farming and farming cities. Each group engaged in a half-hour discussion and then exchanged their results with other groups. Training method of combining theory and practice was widely acclaimed by the participants. The training on future agriculture was very participatory and at the end everyone was experiencing a feeling of engagement.

4. Output indicators: Describe the main project outputs below. This may include workshops, tools, research papers, reports, recommendations, best practices, action plans..

Indicators (Edit or Insert rows as needed)

# planned # actual Details or notes

# workshops / events 1 1 3-days training, together with workshop and field visit

# participants (M/F) 60(30/30) 64(30/34)# economies attending 10 12 Participants from other 8 economies also

joined# speakers engaged 12 12 4 of them are female

# other organizations engaged 3 3 FAO-FSN, GFAR and YPARD# publications distributed 1 1 Proceeding, not officially distributed

# recommendations agreed on 0 0 Other: online discussion 1 1 Online discussion on FAO-FSN

5. Outcomes: Describe any specific medium-term changes to policy, processes or behaviour that can be attributed to result from this activity. Please include details on: What indicators were used to measure medium-term impact? (Example indicators: type/number of

policies/ regulations/processes changed, % of businesses conforming to new standards, change in sector’s commercial activity, # individual action plans developed, # agencies using resource or tools etc.)

Monitoring plans in place and proposed indicators to measure impacts, including any impacts on gender. Please summarise relevant information.

Indicators used to measure medium-term impact include: number of individual research plans developed based on the knowledge of the training; number of agencies/young researchers using resource or tools mentioned in the training; and number of follow-up training or seminar.

The medium-term impact will be monitored at the end of 2017. A feedback questionnaire will be sent to all the participants of the training. All the relevant outputs of the training from them will be summarized. Till now, 3 seminars based on this project were held in Italy, Vietnam, and the Philippines respectively, and one Youth Foresight Training was organized by YPARD. Parts of the participants get benefit from this APEC food security training and workshop project and were also invited to join those activities as well.

6. Participants/ Speakers Summary Table (compulsory for events): Must be gender-disaggregated.

Economy(Insert rows as needed) # male # female Total

Australia 0 1 1

Bangladesh 1 0 1

Chile 0 1 1

China 23 21 44

Chinese Taipei 0 1 1

Coate d'Ivoire 1 0 1

France 1 0 1

Germany 1 0 1

Indonesia 0 1 1

Iran 1 0 1

Japan 1 0 1

Kyrgyz 0 1 1

Namibia 0 1 1

Nepal 1 0 1

New Zealand 0 1 1

Papua New Guinea 0 1 1

Peru 0 1 1

Philippine 0 1 1

Togo 0 1 1

USA 1 0 1

Vietnam 1 0 1Speakers 8 4 12

Comments: What was the approach undertaken for participant nomination/selection and targeting? Please provide details. What follow-up actions are expected? How will participants/beneficiaries continue to be engaged and supported to progress this work?

An up-to-down method is used to select the target participants. The Secretariat of ATCWG helped to send “call for apply” email to each economy. Participants then selected through their CVs and main publications. Follow-up actions include: establishment of APEC food security expert database; Feedback of application of tools and knowledge got from this training from the participants; and further discussion on FAO-FSN. All the participants are listed in the database for future events and cooperation.

7. Key findings: Describe 1-3 examples of key findings, challenges or success stories arising from the project (e.g. research or case studies results, policy recommendations, roadblocks to progress on an issue, impacts on gender).

Young professionals are not only expected to predict the future, but also have foresight of the future. Foresight is one step beyond prediction, and it means to explore, intervene and influence. It does not only forecast the trends, but the breaks, ruptures, disruptions and discontinuities as well.

Currently APEC economies and research institutions using different monitoring methods to do food security researches and draw different conclusions, which become a big challenge to compare the food security situation of economies. Scientific, reasonable and widely used method and system to measure and monitor food security need to be developed.

The main challenges to food security include: 1) The drive for self-sufficiency practiced in some economies can conflict with a sustainable use of natural resources; 2) Information given needs to be relevant to the local conditions; 3) The gap between entrepreneurial farming and family farming can widen; 4) Food losses and waste throughout the supply chains.

8. Next steps: Describe any planned follow-up steps or projects, such as workshops, post-activity evaluations, or research to assess the impact of this activity. How will the indicators from Question 5 be tracked? How will this activity inform any future APEC activities?

An expert database containing more than one hundred food security experts (most of them from APEC economies) will be established, the database contain the information of contacts, main research area, and main publications of each expert. The database will be shared to each APEC economy through the contact person of each economy in ATCWG.

Further training is planning based on the main findings of this training. In-depth analysis and case studies on food security of APEC economies will be put forward as evidences for

decision-making of Chinese government on food security policies.

9. Feedback for the Secretariat: Do you have suggestions for more effective support by APEC fora or the Secretariat? Any assessment of consultants, experts or other stakeholders to share? The Secretariat examines feedback trends to identify ways to improve our systems.

In the process of “call for application”, we did not receive many applications as we imagined. We suggest the APEC ATCWG could help to spread the project information out to more young researchers, so that the most appropriate candidates could be targeted.

SECTION C: Budget

Attach a detailed breakdown of the APEC- provided project budget, including: Planned costs: (using most recently approved budget figures) Actual expenditures Variance notes: An explanation of any budget line under- or over-spent by 20% or more.

Items Planned costs Actual expendituresConsulting 30,000 35,000Communication(tele, mail) 30,000 19,820Travelling 180,000 170,000Accommodation 60,000 61,000Meals 50,000 49,900Meeting (Meeting room, interpret) 20,000 40,000Materials 10,000 14,040Labor 80,000 75,000Other goods and service 40,000 34,400Total 500,000 499,160

Unit: CNY. SECTION D: Appendices

Please attach the following documentation to the report. Note that the contact list for participants/ experts/ consultants is a mandatory requirement for all Project Completion Reports.

Appendices Notes Participant contact list, including name, email address, gender,

organization (mandatory) Experts / consultants list, including name, email address, gender,

organization (mandatory) Event Agenda Reports, websites or resources created: links or soft copies Proceedings

Post activity survey or other evaluation data (raw and/or aggregated) Other information or resources Participant list of online

discussionFOR APEC SECRETARIAT USE ONLY APEC comments: Were APEC project guidelines followed? Could the project have been managed more effectively or easily by the PO?

Appendices 1 Participant contact list

Name Organization Economy EmailRisti Permani University of Adelaide Australia [email protected]

Fardous Mohammad Safiul Azam

University of Development Alternative (UODA)

Bangladesh [email protected]

Julybeth Del Valle Marquez

Bureau of Agricultural Studies and Policies (ODEPA), Ministry of Agriculture

Chile [email protected]

Bingsheng Ke China Agricultural University China 　

Fengying Nie Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Xiangping Jia Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University China [email protected]

Xiaolin Wang

Information Center of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development

China [email protected]

Pei Guo China Agricultural University China [email protected]

Beibei Wu Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Chunhong Qu Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China quchunhong@ caas.cn

Dayan Lin Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Fan Yang Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Haibo Zhu Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Hongxia Liu Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Jia Liu Jilin Agricultural University China [email protected]

Jiaqi Chen South China Agricultural University China [email protected]

Jiaqi Huang Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Jingwen QianInstitute of Agricultural Economics And Development, CAAS


Jieying Bi Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Ji Chen Yunnan Agricultural University China [email protected]

Jue Zhu Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Junmei Cao Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences China [email protected]

Lili Gu Jilin Agricultural University China [email protected]

Li Zhang Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Mingwen Li Shenyang Agricultural University China [email protected]

Shahat Sabet Institute of Agricultural China [email protected]

Mhamed Elmorshdy Economics And Development, CAAS

Tengfei Zhang Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Tianyu Zhang Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities China [email protected]

Wenhao Qi Jilin Agricultural University China [email protected]

Wei Zhao Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Xiran YangInstitute of Agricultural Economics And Development, CAAS


Xiaoyu Cheng Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Xiudong Wang Institute of Agricultural Economics And Development, CAAS


Xue Xiong Chinese Academy of Social Sciences China [email protected]

Xuebiao Zhang Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Yaheng Han Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Yanjiao Wei Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Yanzhang Chu Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Yan Liu Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities China [email protected]

Yanfang Huang Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Yingya Yu Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Yongchun Wang Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Yue Jin Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Zhiying Yue Nanjing Agricultural University China [email protected]

Zhizhi Si Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Zijian Zou Inner Mongolia Agricultural University China [email protected]

Zukui WuInstitute of Agricultural Economics And Development, CAAS


Ching-Cheng Chang National Taiwan University

Chinese Taipei [email protected]

Bonny Dadji Stephane Serge

Institute of Food and Nutrition, CAAS

Coate d'Ivoire [email protected]

Robin Bourgeois Global Forum on Agriculture Research France [email protected]

(GFAR)

Max Blanck

Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Germany [email protected]

Rahmi YulifiantiIndonesian Legume and Root Crops Research Institute (ILETRI)

Indonesia [email protected]

Mohammdreza Davari

Scientific Committee of First National Symposium on Sustainable Ecosystem and Development

Iran [email protected]

Osamu Koyama

Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)

Japan [email protected]

Shakirova Meerim World Bank Kyrgyz [email protected] Kaulinawa Shifiona

Institute of Food and Nutrition, CAAS Namibia [email protected]

Samesh Adhikari Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS Nepal [email protected]

Miranda Jayne Mirosa University of Otago New

Zealand [email protected]

Merie Dada Unagi National Department of Agriculture and Livestock

Papua New Guinea [email protected]

Paula Rosa Carrion Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation Peru [email protected]

Cynthia Remedios Villegas De Guia

Bureau of Agricultural Research Philippine [email protected]

Gbete Germaine Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS Togo [email protected]

Andrew Yang Anderson-Sprecher

U.S. Department of Agriculture USA Andrew.Anderson-

[email protected]

Khanh Quoc VuMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)

Vietnam [email protected]

Appendices 2 Experts / consultants list

Name Organization Economy EmailRisti Permani University of Adelaide Australia [email protected] Ke China Agricultural China [email protected]

University

Fengying Nie Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS China [email protected]

Xiangping Jia Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University China [email protected]

Xiaolin Wang

Information Center of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development


Pei Guo China Agricultural University China [email protected]

Sixi QuCounsel of Department of International Cooperation of MOA

China

Dengxin FengDirector of International Cooperation Department, CAAS


Ching-Cheng Chang National Taiwan University

Chinese Taipei [email protected]

Robin Bourgeois Global Forum on Agriculture Research (GFAR)

France [email protected]

Max Blanck

Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Germany [email protected]

Osamu Koyama

Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)

Japan [email protected]

Appendices 3 Event Agenda

The APEC Food Security Training and WorkshopSep. 7-9, 2015

Beijing Friendship Hotel Beijing, China

Sep. 6th 15:00-18:00 Registration

Sep. 7th 9:00-10:20 Registration

10:20-11:00 Opening Ceremony10:20-10:40 Opening Remarks

10:20-10:30 Sixi Qu Counsel of Department of International Cooperation of MOA

10:30-10:40 Dongxin Feng Director of International Cooperation Department of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

10:40-11:00 Group Photo and Coffee Break11:00-12:00 Keynote Speeches

11:00-11:40

Agricultural development and food security issues in China

President Bingsheng Ke

China Agricultural University

11:40-12:00

Food security and nutrition in poor areas in China

Prof. Fengying Nie

Agricultural Information Institute of CAAS12:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-18:00 Training Food Security Measurement

Facilitator: Prof. Fengying Nie

14:00-15:30

Comprehensive food security measurement

Prof. Osamu Koyama

15:30-15:50 Discussion

15:50-16:10 Coffee Break

16:10-17:40 Assessment of food loss and waste

Prof. Ching-Cheng Chang

17:40-18:00 Discussion

Sep. 8th 8:30-12:30 Training Food Value Chain

Facilitator: Prof. Ching-Cheng Chang

8:30-10:00

Regoverning agrifood market and transforming agricultural production in China: from smallholders to pluralistic large farms

Prof. Xiangping Jia10:00-10:20 Discussion


10:40-12:10Food value chain development

Dr. Risti Permani

12:10-12:30 Discussion12:30-13:40 Lunch

14:00-18:00 Training Food Security and Poverty

Facilitator: Dr. Robin Bourgeois

14:00-15:30Policy on accurate multidimensional poverty alleviation in China

Prof. Xiaolin Wang15:30-15:50 Discussion


16:10-17:40

Involving stakeholders in the food security policy debate

Dr. Max Blanck

Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition, FAO 17:40-18:00 Discussion

Sep. 9th 8:30-12:30 Training Resilience and Foresights

Facilitator: Prof. Osamu Koyama

8:30-10:00 Financial support for poverty reduction

Prof. Pei Guo10:00-10:20 Discussion10:20-10:50 Coffee Break

10:50-12:10The futures of agriculture, food and rural development: what is next for young professionals?

Dr. Robin Bourgeois, Senior officer12:10-12:30 Discussion

12:30-12:40 Closing Ceremony12:40-13:40 Lunch14:00-18:00 Field Visit

Appendices 4 Proceedings

Proceedings of APEC Food Security Training and Workshop

Agricultural Information Institute

of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Beijing, China

7-9 September 2015

Acronyms

APEC Asia-Pacific Economy

AII Agricultural Information Institute

CAAS Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

CSA Commodity System Analysis

FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations

FSN Food Security and Nutrition

FPCs Farmers Professionals Cooperative

GDP Gross Domestic Products

GFAR Global Forum on Agricultural Research

Govt Government

MFM Mass Flow Model

MOA Ministry of Agriculture

PPTs Power Point Presentations

USA United States of America

VC Value Chain

Executive Summary

APEC Food Security Training and Workshop was held in Beijing from September 7-9, 2015, which was supported by China-APEC Cooperation Fund of the Ministry of Finance and hosted by Agricultural Information Institute (AII) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The training and workshop discussed different topics like food value chain, market and trade, food security and nutrition, resilience and foresights. Several experts, came from international organizations such as FAO and GFAR and relevant Chinese departments made speeches around “comprehensive food security measurement”, “assessment of food loss and waste”,”smallholders’ market participation”, “multidimensional poverty and food security”, “experiences from FSN food security and nutrition”, ”financial support for poverty reduction” and “foresights for food security”. The workshop summarized some regional experiences on how to deal with climate change and food security problems in an interactive roundtable discussion, PPTs from the speakers are compiled in “Presentation in APEC Food Security Training and Workshop”.

The training and workshop was organized with an objective to implement the consensus of the third APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting in 2014 and to build a regional platform to exchange ideas on food security issues. The workshop also explored the assessment methods, policies and impact evaluation for food security and shared good practices of APEC economies to ensure food security. Prof. Nie Fengying from AII shared her team’s research outcomes on food security and nutrition for poor households and expressed her willingness to strengthen the international cooperation and make more contributions to food security research.

After the training, the delegates also cheerfully visited the modern agricultural demonstration park and the domestic agricultural library in CAAS, which helped them to understand intuitively about the Chinese development on food security technology. The workshop further expanded the communication channels between the APEC economies and international organizations and played an important role to strengthen the international cooperation of Agricultural Information Institute.

The training and workshop for food security scholars in the APEC economies is reported to be a part of the large scale ongoing food security training program undertaken by Prof. Nie Fengying at AII. The other goals of the program are building an expert database containing more than one hundred food security experts and most of them from APEC economies; discussing and putting forward scientific, reasonable and widely used method and system to measure and monitor food security; learning methods and techniques from other economies and sharing them with domestic scholars timely through trainings, seminars and exhibitions; training domestic scholars at relevant time and providing evidences for decision-making of Chinese government on food security policies.

More than 70 experts and young researchers attended this training and workshop. The participants came from Chile, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam as well as Chinese institutions and universities including Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Renmin University of China, China Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, contact detail of the participants can be referred to “List of participants”.

Introduction

Food security has remained as an issue of high importance in APEC economies. While some APEC economies have made remarkable progress towards food security, others are still progressing. It has been imperative to share APEC economies’ experiences, strengthen coordination, learn better research and monitoring methods about food security and jointly respond to regional and global food security challenges. We believe such sharing of lessons and experiences will be also effective towards the implementations of the APEC Food Security Road Map towards 2020.

In 2014, the third APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting was held in Beijing. It has been discussed that APEC economies will continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation to reach a common strategy and solicit recommendations in the field of food security. During the last decade, China has made outstanding achievements in meeting the basic food needs for the poorest, and also set good examples of developing methodologies in the monitoring of domestic and household food security. China has gained a series of prominent results in increasing food production through technological innovation, and made important contributions in communication and transfer of scientific and technological achievements among different economies. Chinese experiences may be beneficial to many other APEC economies or even the world on the issue of food security.

"APEC Food Security Training and Workshop" is pleased to welcome all of you in Beijing Friendship Hotel on September 7-9, 2015, which is supported by China-APEC Cooperation Fund of the Ministry of Finance and hosted by Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The training and workshop is designed to expand the channels and platforms for the APEC economies and international organizations to exchange ideas on food security issues. It especially aims to train and work with young researchers of APEC economies and enhance their research capacities on food security issues. Furthermore, the training and workshop will explore assessment methods, policies and impact evaluation for food security and share good practices of APEC economies to ensure food security.

The officials and scholars from relevant ministries, research institutions, universities, and international organizations will share their views and insights with the young researchers in the field of food security during the training and workshop. We are looking forward to meeting you in this autumn of 2015 in Beijing.

E-Consultation/Online Discussion

The E-Consultation is co-organized by the Agriculture Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences and FSN (www.fao.org/fsnforum ) from 1st Sep. to 25Sep.

APEC is the premier Asia-Pacific economic forum which goal is to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

Notwithstanding the regional aim of the workshop, we believe that the knowledge of experts from APEC economies can be of great value to practitioners in the rest of the world on food security and vice versa.

In order to allow the workshop to benefit the food security community as much as possible, our vision therefore is that interested individuals, food security professional, practitioners, researchers and students from all over the world can join this event through this online discussion. On the days of the workshop we will share the write-up and results from the training sessions with all of you, while the inputs received through this online discussion will be discussed at the meeting.

Given the above we would like to invite you to reflect on the following guiding questions drawing on the experience in your economy.

How can smallholder farmers benefit from global value chains?

What is the most striking example of measures that have improved Food security and Nutrition in your economy in the last decade?

What are the challenges for policy implementation in your economy related to food security research?

How can we ensure the participation of youth in the wider food security dialogue?

60 comments received from 23 economies: China, Australia, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic,

Armenia, Iran, USA, Bangladesh, Chile, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Cote D’Ivoire, Japan,

New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Togo, Germany, Guatemala, Congo, Italy, Benin, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

http://www.fao.org/fsnforum

Topic1: How can smallholder farmers benefit from global value chains?• Consolidating plots and farms into larger businesses can be a solution• Organizing into cooperatives can increase bargaining power of farmers• It is necessary to help small farmers comply with international rules and standards• Need to encourage women to have a greater role• The linkage between farmers, intermediaries and consumers is key • Link smallholder farmers in developing economies to profitable markets worldwide• Support their willingness to upgrade and adopt new technology (e.g. precision farming)• Complete the move toward a market economy• Strengthen extension services• Farmers need access to credit in order to be able to invest in innovate (collaterals)• Increase consumer concern in developed economies for farmers facing poverty

Topic2: How can we ensure the participation of youth in the wider food security dialogue?• Early introduction of the concepts of food security into school curricula.• Nutrition education• Make rural areas more attractive (rural development)• Engage youth through modern channels (internet)• Youth needs to see agriculture as an innovative activity that can provide them a promising

futureTopic3: Challenges to food security

• The drive for self-sufficiency practiced in some economies can conflict with a sustainable use of natural resources.

• Information given needs to be relevant to the local conditions• The gap between entrepreneurial farming and family farming can widen.• Food losses and waste throughout the supply chains

Training and Workshop

Key Note Speech

During the training-Workshop there were two key note speakers; President Bingsheng Ke, presented agricultural development and food security issues in China and Prof. Fengying Nie who presented food security and nutrition in poor areas in China.

Prof. Bingsheng Ke on his key note presentation on agricultural development and food issue in China, he explained past and current situation, major challenges transpired and solutions. He said the share of agriculture has changed since 1980s. In 1980, agriculture sector shared was 30% of GDP, 81% of population, 69% of employment, 20% of export and 15% of import; whilst in 2013 agriculture sector shares was 9% of GDP, 45% or 65% of population, 30% of employment, 2.7% of export and 5.6% of import. At the same time, food share in household budget has tremendous changed. In 1980, food shared was 57% of urban household budgets and 62% of rural ones; whilst in 2013 food shared was 36% of urban household budgets and 39% of rural ones.

The grain production in China has increased in eleven consecutive years with net imports soared. That is because demand for grain is more than production. Generally, population growth, income growth and rapid urbanization all stimulate demand for agricultural products, especially, demand for meat, eggs and milk caused the increase in demand for corn and soybean as feed for livestock.

China faces the great challenges of feeding its growing population with declining land, water and other food production resources as well as increasing opportunity cost of labor and domestic food production cost. Then, it is a problem how to produce more, better and safer food with less farmland, less water and less other resources. About the farmland, protection policy of farmland must be the solution. The water scarcity will be critical in north and northwest of China. Farm labor is declining due to migration to cities and rising in labor costs. And labor cost will continue to increase in the future.

The way to secure the future is to increase domestic production, protect the farmland and improve the infrastructure, mechanization, science and technology, farm scale and public service.

He finishes by saying; food security is a long term subject matter, especially for developing economies. Food demand will continue to rise and the production needs to be increased, mainly through yield improvement. International cooperation is necessary and important.

Professor Nie shared her PPT on comprehensive detail of the results of the research which was done on poor areas in China base on five indicators; first, food availability based on total production, output per capita and Imports & exports; Second, food access based on rural incomes, transportation and marketing; third part was food consumption & nutrition based

on nutritional intake, food intake diversity and malnutrition among children under five. Fourth part was food utilization based on health, water & sanitation and education; last part was vulnerability focusing on the natural shocks and economic shocks.

Detail on the methodology used to get data was well narrated and preliminary results since the project is still going on until 2020.

Food Security Measurement

This was the first theme presented during the training-workshop, presented by Professor Osamu Koyama and Professor Ching-Cheng Chang, under the facilitator Professor Fengying Nie. In this theme, it was divided into two topics; Comprehensive food security measurement presented by professor Osamu and Assessment of food loss and waste presented by Professor Ching-Cheng Chang.

1. Comprehensive food security measurement

Prof. Osama Koyama presentation on compressive food security measurement, started by defining food security based on three pillars of food security: food availability, food access and food use, which depends on each other. Whether viewed globally, within the nation, the state, or in local communities, food security is an essential, universal dimension of household and personal well-being. The deprivation of basic need represented by food insecurity and hunger are undesirable in their own right and also are possible precursors to nutritional, health, and developmental problems. Food security is commonly based on component, level and dimension to measure. But the question is, why measure food security? The answer is due to the fact that food security measurement provides independent, more specific information on this dimension of well-being than can be inferred from income data alone.

He emphasized on the key points in each parameters such as; (i) For measurement: food balance sheet is important; (ii) For food supply: we have to produce more for more people(9 billion in the world need food); (iii) Water scarcity: China is physically physical water scarcity economy; (iv) In global situation: food demand will increase, but supply may not; (v) what to be done: we have to control population and limit demand, use vegetable base food intake and also increase food supply.

He ended up by insisting proper control on population growth, proper use of available food, equal supply of available food and wise use of natural resources such as water.

Question and Answer

Question: I am curious about Japanese food guide, the Chinese perception that Japanese live longer because they had a lot of milk when they were young. What is the practice in Japan or is there any programme for feeding Japanese children who are at school? Is there

any special intervention from the government on the nutrition? We have watched a lot of movies showing that children in Japan eat very well, nutritious food and they have good habit on the table.

Response to the Question: Japanese government promotes good education for children. Before World War II the nutrition status in Japan was very bad, there were so much people who had shortage of food and there were so many diseases. After WW II things changed, because of support from other part of the world including USA, introduction of cereal meals including skim milk came with the target of school children. It became a habit whereas at the age of 15 we were still drinking skim milk, despite of price we copy American style, that was not good in terms of culture heritage but good for nutrition especially for milk consumption. The habit continues within young generation and became a positive effect of increasing height of school children. That was beginning of promotion of agricultural industries in USA and Australia, to save their products although it was help for Japan. We took it as good lesson. The training of eating habit became as a part of lesson given in schools. Now days there so many programmes that is teaching how to consume and how to behave. The good thing is, our practice was taken as a lesson and has been practice in many economies (Africa, Europe, Asia and America) which make us feel proud of it.

Question: There are several food guides that comes with different shape, Japanese food guide parameters have different shape from other, why this different model.

Response: The change is spinning of our surrounding, we include so many things including source of energy, but honestly I do not know why choose this shape.

Question: In Africa there is a plenty of land and enough water, why Japan not coming to Africa to invest? (Egypt)

Answer: We know potential for Africa, Japanese is importing a lot from Africa, and we are promoting rice. However, the population in Africa is increasing and they have to feed themselves and they need to keep this precious land for themselves. I advise use of technology for Africa, in 1970s there was hunger in the world, which made Japanese government invest in Brazil. Since China is importing a lot of several million tons of soy beans from Brazil and from USA. No one deny the food basket in Africa but one should be careful in investment.

Additional clarification: Egypt is very dry economy for investment in agriculture, but for Africa as whole is important.

Comments on why Japan and China investment in Africa: Production in Africa is affected by faming system in Africa, there is potential but need to be careful in investment.

Question: how do we include the recommendations from research in our daily plans and programe, in reference to food security guide you have presented?

Answer: Scientific base is very persuasive in changing people mindset and habit, scientific knowledge is base for increasing food, but we need to see availability, although in practice price is going high so people tend to eat food junk.

Question: why international community is much interested with food security not food insecurity? Food security is about products and quantity of food while food insecurity is about people, why some waste food while some are hungry? Why having people with food insecurity?

Response: The definition of both is not clear to me, but international community deals with food security because they want to solve the problem of food in their economies, especially controlling the price which is very unstable.

2. Assessment of food loss and waste

Prof. Ching-Cheng Chang gave her speech about assessment of food loss and waste. According to FAO, food losses represent a waste of resources used in production such as land, water, energy and inputs. Producing food that will not be consumed leads to unnecessary CO2 emissions in addition to loss of economic value of the food produced. Economically avoidable food losses have a direct and negative impact on the income of both farmers and consumers. Given that many smallholders live on the margins of food insecurity, a reduction in food losses could have an immediate and significant impact on their livelihoods (Robert van O. and al.,2011).

Statistic given my researchers says that about one-third of edible parts of food produced for human consumption, which is about 1.3 billion tons per year, gets lost or wasted (Gustavasson, et al., 2011). Food losses refer to the decrease in edible food mass throughout the part of the supply chain that specifically leads to edible food for human consumption. Food losses could happen during the production, postharvest and processing stages in the food supply chain (Parfitt et al., 2010). Food losses occurring at the end of the food chain are rather called “food waste”, which relates to retailers’ and consumers’ behavior (Parfitt et al., 2010).

In the dairy sector high income economies witness their highest levels of loss and waste during the consumption phase, with estimated losses and waste at 7 percent of produce purchased. 4 percent losses are seen in the agricultural production phase with minimal losses and waste between the farm and retail. Middle income economies recorded with the highest levels of losses during agricultural production (over 20 percent), primarily due to poor cattle management and milking practices. Processing, distribution and consumption losses are also 5 percent and higher, reflecting technological and cold chain deficiencies, leading to losses and shorter storage and shelf-lives of products. Low income economies reported their highest loss levels during processing, due to poor sanitation and low level of the technologies used.

Challenges for Asia-Pacific: Causes of food losses and waste in developing economies were primarily linked to financial, managerial and technical limitations in harvesting techniques, storage and cooling facilities in difficult climatic conditions, as well as in infrastructure, packaging and marketing systems. There is a need of compressive research results to deal with this. In developed economies, strict hygiene and safety rules inhibit recovery of uneaten food. There is reported high cost used to reduce loss or to safe collection, storage, and transport food to food banks. Another challenge is the change in consumption pattern.

Before assessing food loss, there is pre-prepared needs; first, defined the area and make investigation of the product. Second, decide the methodology and procedure to be used, such as, loss has quantity and quality aspect (e.g. bananas), the package need more technology to reduce the loss. The same for mangoes reduce the tree height to make it accessible or easy picking for consumption. In case of fish; there is complication for consumers which create some issue in food loss. In many economies, some part of fishes is taken out as waste, because is not edible for some people, but in other economies, all fishes is edible. Looking at the by product; In China, pigs blood for example is edible and may not be edible in some economies. Third part is data collection and giving final results.

Two common methodologies used for assessing the food loss: Commodity System Analysis (CSA) based on Postharvest and marketing data, which is important for quantity and quality and second method is Mass Flow Model (MFM), based on available food balance sheet data.

Questions and Answers

Question: MFM methodology used, how FAO make the loss ratio, are there estimation of are based on experience? Food balance sheets provide number of food waste, is your project give the same number provided by FBS? Problem of Estimating food loss, why have different results? What is the food security situation in Chinese Taipei?

Response:

FAO methodology on loss ratio is basing on expertise contracted to execute the methodology on how to desegregate, but generally it base on expert opinion.

The cause of the loss come from different areas may be from products or period of time or weather, so there are so many factor that affect results. However our study is just at the infant stages, so we expect to see what we can do to get at least very close data.

The food security in Chinese Taipei is the same as in Japan, food self-sufficient ratio is 32%, we also importing food as well like Japan, but we are sufficient with some food like rice which is 100%.

Question: what is response of private sector engaging with your project?

Response: we have not done survey with private sector, but we have invited supermarket and they told us they have no idea if our project will help them. They think is not important for them, but we are trying to work with them to be more transparent, as we need to persuade them that our way will be beneficial and good for their business. In USA they have got cooperation but bottom line is to ensure confidentiality of the results.

Question: Do you use the same loss ratio published by FAO to calculate the food loss to the APEC economies, could we have alternative way of doing it by using literature review by the same economy.

Response: I agree that each economy should have its own loss ratio, it is challenging but our study use FAO but we need to revise ratio using the economy situation although is difficult to come out with number. We are aware with difficult but we have enough literature that is our main lead now.

Comment: if consider food production as cycle, we can use some by-product such fertilizer for improving soil, what is your idea on this….can this help food security?

Response: Our projects discourage too much production by using marginal land as we will exploit the land, and is not sustainable. We are trying avoiding food loss on the value chain; we need to produce what we can consume.

Generally, the first day for the workshop was very fruitful for all of participants. Full knowledge of present policies and their impacts on food production, stability of supply, trade, and household food security are essential to design appropriate policy measures and the institutional framework to improve food security. At the same time, food balance sheet is important for measurement of food security in the practice. Bottom line is that, special attention needs to be paid on the food loss and waste.

Food Value Chain

This theme was divided into two parts; first part was Regoverning Agrifood Market and Transforming Agricultural Production in China presented by Professor Xiangping Jia. Second part was Food Value Chain Development presented by Dr. Risti Permani.

Regoverning Agrofood Market and Transforming Agricultural Production in China: From Smallholders to Pluralistic Large Farms

Professor Dr. Xiangping Jia from Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University presented an interesting topic on how government policies in agrifood market have transformed agricultural production in China. The presentation based on the three case studies on (1) dairy scandal and transforming dairy production, (2) emerging farmer cooperatives and (3) direct farm programs of supermarket, which has the main focus on the contribution from smallholders to the large supermarkets during the transition period in China. In this period

family farming had very effective role in agricultural production system in China as well as it still has mixed opportunities and challenges to overcome. Opportunities available for family farm are Agriculture by nature is an ecological production process and technological progress cannot capitalize very part of farming, in case of the production costs family farming is more efficient than hired labor which is also reported by Sah 1986; Binswanger, Deininger, & Feder, 1995; Binswanger & Rosenzweig, 1986). Other merits are; farmers organization is primarily subjected to family governance, justice and equity is an issue of political argument and as whole small but beautiful.

The Challenges are transaction cost related to individual smallholder farmers are prohibited, new-wave of transformed agrofood market affect family farming, farmers have to confront a rapidly changing technological environment in which substantial inefficiencies may arise, the family farming is prone to the ecology-poverty trap.

Looking at the challenges based on different angels, he explained challenges that relate to the production are lack of scale and coordination in production, continued out-migration and rising rural wages, minimal human capital & experience. The challenges based on distribution & marketing are minimal storage and cold-chain infrastructure, large number of intermediaries (brokers) between farm wholesale and weak definition and enforcement of quality standards.

The implications of the mentioned challenges are production is relatively inefficient and costly subjected, there is additional costs added by many layers of intermediation and there is minimal ability & incentives to meet higher quality & safety standards.

What is the policy response for the above mentioned challenge in China? Recent Policy Response was based on (1) Developing economies of scale such as permit/promote land consolidation and promote formation of farmer organizations and cooperatives. (2)Support “modernization” of supply chains via private enterprise, such as promote Dragon-Head & “Vegetable Basket” programs for domestic agribusiness and permit foreign supermarkets to enter in china market. (3) Establishing new safety standards such as, tougher obligatory standard known as “No Harm” and two-tiered voluntary standards known as “Green” & “Organic”. (4) Promote vertical coordination which is direct Farm Pilot program.

The pattern for policy interventions of promoting Large Farms since 2006 to 2013 is reported as

In 2006 No. 1 Policy of State Council “Advice to Promote New Rural Campaign” was initialized with focus on new rural campaign and modernization of agriculture and agro-industrialization by supporting agribusiness enterprises and vertical coordination.

In 2007 there was law of farmer’s professional cooperatives, which focused on provision of service (such as purchasing agricultural inputs, marketing, and technologies etc.) through cooperatives.

In 2008 through 2011, Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) issued “Advice of Developing Direct Farm (DF) with Supermarket”. The issue was intended to reduce market intermediaries by connecting farmers to the retailing and supporting consolidated production through agri-food chain.

In 2013, No. 1 Policy of State Council on Advice of Modernizing Agriculture and Energizing Rural Development was issued with focus on institutional innovations of farm production and promoting and support large farm (specialized farm, cooperatives, agribusiness enterprises etc.). In the same year, the 3rd plenum of the 18th central committee of November 9th, draw up a “profound revolution” to give farmers full rights to their land and housing with the aim of promoting ‘family farm’.

Based on the case study on dairy crisis in China he focused on the addition of Melanin in milk, which was marked as the dark time for dairy sector in China. During this crisis, Chinese government took several actions such as; providing subsidies to the farmers who got loss (few benefited), change marketing policies, e.g. forbidding mobile brokers and upgrading, change production policies, e.g. encouraged farmers to move from backyard to Cow Complex/hotel (traditional to formal). Impacts on Farmers was hard which also affected China’s dairy industry, whereby aftermath of the onset of the Scandal, dairy participation fell substantially and herd size declined which transformed marketing chain towards inspection and supervision.

Second case study focused on initiative in China on fragmented agrifood chain. China started cooperative farming in 2006. Based on the survey 157 farmers in five provinces interview, only 23% of them reported to be engaged in modern super markets, modern marketing channels and have better choice for the farmers. However, agrofood chain is getting better in terms of coordination through farmers Professionals Cooperative (FPCs). The coordination of agrofood market through FPCs in China is maintained by impersonal rules and relational agreements. It is challenging to assure traceability and food safety. However, brand becomes an important asset specificity of reputation for FPCs to achieve vertical coordination with contracts. Certification to food safety and quality standards, however, is not facilitating the vertical contracts.

He mentioned that, China’s farm Organizations are being backward integrated by agribusiness companies (of processing, trading, agr-chemical, etc.). Decision-making within FPCs in China is still decentralized to individual farmers. However, there is a trend that the decision of the marketing rights tends to be collectively in right-value sector. The governance structure of FPCs in transition of China presents hybrid forms of both hierarchy and family farming have dynamic and multiple trajectories. Government policies (direct subsidies on initiation) are limited in promotion.

Generally, family farm is till the dominant system of agricultural production in China, although a variety of new forms of production are emerging, leading to pluralistic system.

Family farms travels on multiple trajectories with local viability. Still China faces mixed opportunities and challenges to transform the smallholder farming to large one.


Question: Is there any study showing the movement from family farming to consolidated system and being entrepreneurship?

Answer: There was one study of PhD study which was on dairy processors, the study is clear and opens for everyone, I will give you a copy to see what the result was.

Question: Why the price of apple in China is expensive than the price of apples in outside China?

Answer: The factor is consumer interest, so the taste is different from one place to another. In China apple are having sour and crunchy and soft, but the one exported outside China are sweet and hard skin, that cause lower price since they are not needed by Chinese. This is promotion strategy in marketing as well, where package get subsidy if buy in a certain quantity. The exportation is taken as competitor so they are eager to export to gain this image.

Question: Is the alternative to promote cooperative other than promotion of tax reduction? (reference to Peru)

Answer: Promotion has two sources, Public sector (policy promotion) and another is from the market, for Peru the community needs to be given more weight, but in China need both forces.

Question: How Government manages to contain the effect of milk contamination (melanin)?

Answer: The government identified the people and stops the practice but generally government subsidizes the farmers who were victim.

Question: What are the examples of the case that cooperative that takes the farmer interest serious?

Answer: Many cooperative being cheated by farmers, but the protection of farmers is complicated; the basic and easy way is for farmer to protect themselves which call self-compliance, which means farmers should protect themselves. Example in Jiangsu there was a cooperative which has high production and manages to migrate farmers and lease their land. Also in Hunan the cooperative is giving share to farmers apart from income farmer is getting by selling product from the supermarket which reduce farmers risk and discourage cheating.

Question: New Zealand had long and complex supply chain, is there any supermarket in China which has high demand from farmers like New Zealand.

Answer: In china farmer cheat and sometimes they have no knowledge or do not know what is like to produce organic food. Unfortunately I have no experience of farmer being given high demand like New Zealand.

Comment: Farmers cannot bargain much because of power that supermarket have, but may be cooperative have power which can talk for farmers. The whereby in this case cooperative can shape farmers from cheating, how do you think?

Question: Do you consider using other parameters than what you are having now?

Response: It depends on the area and other situations, but we are still working on what we have and we will expand slowly.

Question: I want to get your opinion on what should small economy that are depending on agriculture should do in regards to cooperatives?

Answer: China need to share with small economy on market system which is working very well, the decision making need to be decentralized as well to give inner force but external force need the cooperative to seek market.

Food Value Chain Development

Dr. Risti Permani who is from Global Food Studies of the University of Adelaide presented on how food value chain needs to be developed. She categorized marketing good policy into different area such as relevance, political economy, efficient, partnership, regional view, smallholders, information and whole of chain. And narrowed the discussion based on four key questions (1) Are smallholders being excluded from agrifood transformation? (2) What are the characteristics of business models that allow and enhance smallholder participation? (3) What are the effects of participating at modern supply chains on smallholders’ welfare? and (4)How can food value chain analysis inform policy makers about strategies developing smallholder-inclusive business models?

The topic is well explained based on the Indonesian case study. In Indonesia retail sales value growth increased from 2007 to 2012 which was highest in convenience store. The current trend of dairy value chain need to increase in importance of standards due to differences that exist for the standards in Indonesia, China and USA, this not limited to qualities and traceability. It is also very important to know that there is always a lead firm and vertical coordination in supply chain. Form her personal experience, product differentiation is an interesting point in value chain like milk for pregnant women (maternal milk) which means farmers should produce what consumers want to produce. The value chain demand pull rather than traditional supply push which may bring sustainability in the market. The complexity of value chain depends on: the number of ways in which the

commodity is being utilized (and thus transformed); whether it can be stored; how widely it is distributed (e.g. locally consumed vs export) and the number of different participants.

The most interesting change is shifting from domestically oriented to globally integrated. Among what essential changes needs are in coordination, attention in middle segment (hidden middle), government versus government interactions and governance analysis. There are few steps in Value Chain (VC) Analysis: (i) mapping value chain, (ii) determine the demand and supply condition of the value chain, (iii) determine the dominant coordination arrangement(s) in VC, (iv) analyze how target populations participate in the VC, (v) identify rules and regulations, (vi) analyses the impact of rules on VC participants (including enforcement, rewards and sanctions), (vii) analysis target sector knowledge and awareness of rules, norms and standards, and identify key gaps and (viii) analyze how information and services are provided internally through the VC and externally.

Among other thing she explained value chain principles on supply push and demand pull. However, the success factors for strengthening smallholder-buyer business models within VC includes; non-politically aligned organizations, high quality service provision, social and enterprise strategies, network membership, focus on core business, low cost value additional through organizational innovations, there is no “one-size-fits-all” and understanding the needs and risks of agribusiness companies.

Among the future challenges top priority should be nutrition-sensitive value chain and ensure sustainable food value chain in manner that is profitable throughout, has broad-based benefits for society, and does not permanently deplete natural resources. Connecting the value chain is an important issue. For an example, experience shows that in cocoa farmers in rural community (in Vanuatu) of Indonesia did not know where their beans went and what the test of chocolate is. It is necessary to build partnership with public sectors. For instance, there is a new model in Indonesia where by the dairy farms produce yoghurt and introduce it to school program in their locality, this is not only promote nutrition but also increase income for farmers.

In a conclusion, Dr. Permani recommended that; a whole of chain concept upstream, midstream and downstream approach are all equally important. Broader focus of value chain development is not only focusing on smallholders’ welfare but also impacts on the society. There is no “one-size-fits-all”, this means that is highly important to consider the local cultural contexts when developing smallholder-inclusive business models. Given the dynamics of agrifood markets and increased competition, all chain players must remain in constant dialogue with all stakeholders to meet industry requirements. Research and policy communities can play role in the design and delivery of interventions that most likely to be effective at alleviating constraints in value chain development.


Comment: There are high value nutrition studies in New Zealand it has a lot of challenge but now we are doing developing maternal milk to high value nutrient.

Question: Yogurt shown looks very bright and colorful, what is the nutritional value?

Answer: there is debate in Australia weather pregnant worm should consume milk or not. For the question I agree with you about colour and brightness, we did survey to see whom is involve in a programme and ask who consume fresh milk that cost Australian dollar 25 cents. The milk is not only colourful or bright but they are also nutritious, but also we use UHT milk that does not need culturation.

Question: Why do you think government need to upscale the process if it has not being done before? Why now? Most farmers learn from each other and these farmers can sell milk in the same programme like that in school, why the school programme has to be instutionalize?

Answer: I agree, we do not want to work with government, but the government are the one who organize the whole thing, but we are waiting to be approve to work with private sector and they will work on their own, but is difficult to do research and development without government. For now we are protecting school market, and meanwhile continue with negotiation with schools

Question: What is end goal of the project that deals with cocoa?

Answer: The outcome as researcher is product oriented that used as a platform to replicate to other farmers. Bad news is last March 2015 the project was hit by disaster, so now we also include disaster management.

Comment: Peru coffee farmers are trained and given certificate so that they can increase their production and connected to the market and buyers. Now there is project of promoting the committee that will govern the training to promote local talents and encourage technology, to make the programme sustainable.

Question: Should we consider the environment factor as input in the food value chain?

Answer: Yes we can include. We can use it as not input but also part of value chain especially at the production stage.

Food Security and Poverty

This theme was divided into two parts; first part was Policy on Accurate Multidimensional poverty alleviation in China presented by prof. Xiaolin Wang. Second part was Involving Stakeholders in the Food Security Policy Debate presented by Dr. Max Blanck.

Policy on Accurate Multidimensional Poverty Alleviation in China

Policy on accurate Multidimensional poverty alleviation in China was presented by Dr. XiaoLin Wang, who is a professor of information center of State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. He highlighted that poverty in China is closely related with the concept of “Sustainable Development” based on China’s achievement on poverty reduction and food security, explanation of China’s achievements, future challenges, strategies of accurate multidimensional poverty alleviation (AMPA) between 2016 and 2020 and last part was policies of AMPA.

He began his discourse with the notion that if poverty based on US$1.25 per day and dissuade that he income concept does not successfully link with the idea of “sustainable development”. If we have to decrease the poverty rate especially in rural areas, we have to link two concepts, “Sustainable development” and “Poverty Reduction”. He explained poverty in China based on five angles; economic, social, cultural, environmental and political. Although the word poverty in Chinese pinkun comprised of income (pin) and social wellbeing (kun).

Along the lines of Sustainable development, Oxford University developed Multidimensional Poverty Index. That is one step closer to link sustainable development and poverty reduction. Oxford University defined that health, education and living standard should be measured to calculate poverty and not only based on income or consumption. Although the larger Multidimensional Poverty index has 10 indicators, in short, health income and consumption captures the essence of poverty better than income ($1.25 per day). This multidimensional poverty index is a starting point to combine poverty reduction with sustainable development.

The Chinese meaning of poverty composed of two words “Pin” and “Kun”. While Pin is the income aspect Kun reflects social wellbeing. So, the Chinese thinking of poverty is not always associated with income only. Thus Chinese government is more focused on sustainable development along with poverty reduction. People need to have social, natural and environment rights besides improving their income level to jump out from poverty level.

At the end participants were asked to define poverty in their own language to see if it captures the same meaning of income and social wellbeing. Most of the languages reflected that it is associated with wealth unlike in Chinese language which has both.


Comments: China knows proper channel to achieve poverty reduction very well and has contributed a lot to the millennium development goal, especially on the GDP and poverty reduction. Without China we could be where we are.

However, poverty reduction in most economy is done in each ministry that they should contribute to the reduction, but you set LGOP organisation that you set cross-organizational that can combat this reduction…how does it work?.

Question: Who is behind the strategy explained? How by whom they have been decided, is it government?

Answer: The architect for the transformation is family member that were included but work under government policy not through local poverty strategies as before.

Question: In presentation it was mention that there was scenario where farmers where given capital, how did you increase size of land?

Answer: Local government through promotion of agriculture is using small area to produce more, like on the same area they can produce several crops.

Question: Some economies diseases take high percent to accelerate poverty, what is the situation in China?

Answer: The poor in china are 4% and most of the poor family members have the same problem of disease as you said. The government is doing reform on the health care, whereby all medical expenditure will be covered by government.

Question: What is the relation between food nutrition and poverty reduction?

Answer: In the past there was no habit for breakfast, that is nutrition and food insecurity. So these things are related to poverty directly...skipping meals means unavailability of food.

Questions: There is collaboration with Japan and work with Ministries, how do you get consensus on what to be done?

Answer: There is steering committee that coordinates and central government official is member, each deputy minister in each ministry is member of the committee.

Question: The definition of Poverty in Chinese using Chinese characters was it agreed or what was the process of defining poverty agreed by committee members?

Answer: In China we have 10 years of setting the domestic poverty strategy, here is where we have all the agreements.

Definition of poverty in different economies was discussed in details thereafter.

Involving Stakeholders in the Food Security Policy Debate

The topic was presented by Dr. Max Blanck drawing the experiences from the Global forum on the food security and nutrition. The presentation started by definition of food security based on world food summit 1996 that food security exists when all people, at all times,

have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

The presentation explores why stakeholders are important in food security debate and who are stakeholders and who are not stakeholders? He defined and distinguished stakeholders from non-stakeholders and discussed ways on how we can include different stakeholders in the food security policy debate. Stakeholder is an integral part of a stepwise process of decision making. Sometimes known as a different phases, involvement may take the form of sharing information, consulting, dialoguing, or deliberating on decisions. It should be seen always as a meaningful part of formulating and implementing good policy. Stakeholder involvement techniques should not be viewed as convenient tools for ‘public relations’, image-building or winning acceptance for a decision taken behind closed doors.”

He emphasized that stakeholders are consulted while designing the whole process of policy and not just taken stakeholder consultation as a part of public relation. For examples FAO has been engaging stakeholder consultation in west Africa and central Asia. Online consultation is also an effective way of engaging stakeholders and with less cost good arguments can be generated online. Thus, FAO has created the Global forum on food security and Nutrition where different issues related to food security can be discussed.

Participants basically raised question in the online whether it is possible to have onsight language translation facility as comments are in different language. It has been experienced that first few comments are in one language, say for example French, all other comments will be in French. Language translation facility can solve that problem to include other language speaking participants also.

The topic was concluded by giving out challenges to food security, such as the balance between drive for self-sufficiency and preservation of resources, the information given needs to be relevant to the local conditions by in practice my vary, The gap between entrepreneurial farming and family farming can be wide, and food losses and waste throughout the supply chains can increase if the information on prevention is not well disseminated.


Question: Recognition of contribution for the people who posted on the forum, will they be acknowledged? How do you decide to engaging people because people are afraid to be exploited? What about language issue?

Answer: The fatigue is very important to consider on e-forum, it is difficult to control this but we are trying to control.

Recognition is done on individual bases, if one use information posted by the member, the member is informed but not publically.

Language is costly but we have English, French and Spanish, and we have been translating information based on the three languages. Online translation is not reliable as google does not work in China.

Question: Besides informing the Results on the training, is there any other use of the results at FAO?

Answer: Since we are working with CAAS we also work with policy makers and sometimes we use some of data from discussion to advocate for policy changes, still we have improvement to do by sharing it more especial on APEC economies.

Question: What institution that moderate the platform and is trustworthy by stakeholder.

Answer: FAO is the one that moderate and is in the moderator as it is neutral body with high network everywhere in the world.

Question: The food price can be pushed up due to environmental control, what kind of dialog that can solve the problem?

Answer: Engaging dialog you can make it better or worse, so it depend on two results. Mis-understanding on a forum is common especially when is from China, since China seem aggressive in marketing most participant are skeptical in posting a suggestions.

Question: Is FAO doing intervention on the government projects?

Answer: We would be happy doing that, most of time we work with governments.

Question: How does FAO frame question to avoid discussion?

Answer: The question is frame depending on the topic and objective of the topic, for example we see if knowledge collection or information is sharing.

Question: To what extent that policy makers they are going to use the information which very useful but might not be representative to farmers? Have consider develops APPS for smart phone users?

Answer: we are thinking of developing APPs

Is difficult to reach farmers because most farmer do not like surfing on the web but we do have radio programme.

Question: what is role of FAO in each economy?

Answer: The FAO work with government in implementation of policy related programmes and other issue.

Question: What is measure to take to change eating habit?

Answer: Is difficult to change behaviour, although you can make well-tailored questionnaire to understand them and advise them in the same in-line with response.

Resilience and Foresights

This theme was divided into two parts; first part was Financial Support for Poverty reduction presented by prof. Pei Guo. Second part was the futures of agriculture, food and rural development specifically on what is next for young professionals?”, presented by Dr. Ir. Robin Bourgeois.

Financial Support for Poverty Reduction

The topic was presented by Professor Guo Pei, Dean of the College of Economics and Management of China Agricultural University, by categorizing it into two major area; agricultural finance in China and major policy instruments in China.

Agricultural Finance in China: The agricultural financing remains a prevalent problem among all the developing nations. In order to further develop the rural areas to reduce poverty, the Chinese Government has promulgated a number of monetary and fiscal policies to support agricultural financing, which include discounted loans, microcredit, subsidies, etc. Although financing conditions for agriculture have significantly improved after introducing these policies, still more can be done in the future.

Based on policy measure, Chinese governments enacted monetary and fiscal measures to stimulate the credit going to the agricultural sectors. Government is using monetary and fiscal policy instruments to promote capital flowing into agriculture in the form of credit and equity, as well as achieving "loan is not difficult and not expensive".

Based on Policy Response; Chinese Central Government each and every year chooses one area to be addressed by the first policy document – dubbed “ the No. 1 Document“ - Top of China’s Agenda. For the past 11 consecutive years, the topics are all about agricultural and rural development with different focuses. This has made the budget huge investment and subsidies going to agricultural and rural sector in China.

Changing Credit Demand in China ; Small farmer households hardly have credit demand to pay their seasonal harvest inputs, or invest in agricultural technology and expansion. However, modern agriculture requires large amounts of purchased inputs and investments in on-farm and off-farm activities (storage, refrigeration, processing, and transportation). For the purpose of food security, the gov’t started to pay attention to the new agricultural business entities. On the other hand monetary and fiscal policy tools have been employed to finance the agricultural sectors in China.

The Major Policy Instrument in China: The policies are divided into two, fiscal and monetary as presented in the table below. Through the fiscal policy the Chinese government had to do the following; financial guarantee fund, provides credit risk compensation fund, provide interest-

subsidized loan, provide financial leasing for agricultural machineries, provide agricultural investment funds, ensure agribusiness going public, promoting agricultural insurances and promote rural financial infrastructure.

(a)Existing Fiscal Policy Instruments

Instruments Contents PurposesDirected subsidiesfor new RFIs

2% of loan balance when meet the criterion

Reduce the operating costs

Bonus for incremental agricultural loan balance of countywide financial institutions

2% of the loan balance in excess of 15% more than those of previous year in 18 provinces

Motivate FIs at county level to disburse loans

Tax reduction and exemption

Interest income of microcredit Premium income of some agricultural insurance products

Motivate FIs at county level to disburse loans and insurance products

Interest-subsidized loans for poverty alleviation

Farmer household loan (5% ); Project loan (3% )

Poverty alleviation and income generation

Mutual fund in state-defined poverty-stricken villages

Poverty alleviation fund as the seed money, and the villagers voluntarily join, and the fund is managed by the members

Meet the credit demand, foster the creditworthiness

Subsidized premium of agricultural insurance

The governments at all level covers 75% - 80% of total premiums for 3 types and 15 varieties

Motivate the agricultural producers to purchase insurance

(b) Existing Monetary Policy Instruments in China

Instruments Purposes

Lower required reserve ratio (RRR) for RFIs To have more capital to disburse

Targeted reduction of RRR for RFIs when their loans meet certain criterion

To optimize the credit structure

Low-interest-rate agriculture-oriented refinance for RFIs

To encourage the agricultural loan disbursement

Counter-cycle and structure-optimizing measures when adjust the money supply (M2)

To encourage the agricultural loan disbursement


Question: Agricultural insurance is not agribusiness and not subsidized by government, Is Chinese Government using any fund to compensate the cooperative instead of private sector which is scattered?

Answer: Most farmer in China are not aware of agriculture insurance, they do not want to pay for it. However, the government subsidize product in private sector not the individual, there are three types of subsidized products; such as rice, wheat and pig.

Question: Why RCC idea of micro-loan is big? How agriculture sector in China is taxed since the agriculture sector becoming smaller in the world, what is the situation of agriculture lobbying in China?

Answer: Is very rare to see the farmer household going to RCC to take small loan, if farmer need that small amount of money they go to family member where they cannot pay interest. RCC hope is for someone borrowing from them is the one that have a plan for the investment, where they have set 35,000 Yuan for someone who is in need for one year loan. For farmer household there is no long term loan

Chinese farmer do not have lobbying power, farmer are passive to the policy makers, policy taker.

Question: Is there any data related to farmer using more credit with increase of financial situation in rural area? Are you promoting company to give lease or provide fund for doing leasing?

Answer: Financial leasing company is in North East of China since they are using sophisticated machine to cultivate big land. There are two types, bank that provide leasing company through local government that subsidizes the leasing company. Another one is existing private leasing company that provides agricultural machinery also subsidized by local government as well.

Question: Distribution of loan to the household in urban and rural area is 23% in urban and 82% in rural and are in short term, what is the collateral?

Answer: The data used were from “SANNONG” which is “agriculture countryside”, there is overlap of data which were only available from 2007, rural area are given huge loan since it goes to infrastructure and another one is going to the leading company.

The Futures of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development: What is next for Young Professionals?

Dr. Robin Bourgeois, the Senior Officer at the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, presented training on getting young professionals thinking about the futures of agriculture.

Young professionals are not only expected to predict the future, but also have foresight of the future. Foresight is one step beyond prediction, and it means to explore, intervene and influence. It does not only forecast the trends, but the breaks, ruptures, disruptions and discontinuities as well. Following Dr. Robin’s line of thinking, young professionals were divided into six groups to practice the use of foresight in six different scenarios, namely rural

stations/ghettos, rural poles, rural continuums, rural niches, urban farming and farming cities. Each group engaged in a half-hour discussion and then exchanged their results with other groups. Dr. Robin’s training method of combining theory and practice was widely acclaimed by the participants.

The training on future agriculture was very participatory but at the end everyone was experiencing a feeling of being involved.

This was more group working which was work by participants, which was based on method of expression of present to the futures.

Closing Remarks

Professor Fengying Nie, Director of the International Division of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, delivered the closing remarks of the training session. She hopes that through this training session, young professionals will not only be knowledge and skills acquiring, but also some new ideas, new ways of thinking to inspire their agricultural career in the future. She also adds that the end of this training session is also a beginning, a beginning of the long friendship among all the participants from various economies which increase network among researchers and economist. From this training onwards, young professionals can still learn from each other in their lifelong agricultural undertakings.

Appendices 5 Participant list of online discussion

Name Organization EconomyAnna Yeritsyan 　 ArmeniaOlumide Odeyemi 　 AustraliaRobert Vincin Emission Trading Association Australia Ltd AustraliaMd. Moshfaqur Rahman 　 BangladeshEmile Houngbo Agricultural University of Ketou (UAK) BeninJulybeth Marquez Bureau of Agricultural Studies and Policies ChileNie Fengying Agriculture Information Institute, CAAS ChinaAlphin Lin Fujian Medical University ChinaYingya Yu Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences ChinaAigo Alun Agriculture Information Institute, CAAS, ChinaEric Kimbembe Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, ChinaRui Gu Agriculture Information Institute, CAAS ChinaSamesh Adhikari Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences ChinaZhongmin Gao Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences ChinaHuang Yanfang Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences ChinaEliamoni Lyatuu Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences ChinaGermaine GBETE Agriculture Information Institute, CAAS ChinaXue Xiong Chinese academy of social sciences ChinaYanjiao Wei Nanjing Agricultural University ChinaDAYAN LIN Nanjing University of Science & Technology ChinaTENGFEI ZHANG Nanjing Agricultural University ChinaRundy Lee 　 ChinaBeibei Wu Nanjing Agricultural University ChinaZheng Yuchan South China Agricultural University ChinaRabbit Jessie South China Agricultural University ChinaJiaqi Chen South China Agricultural University ChinaShenghui Li South China Agricultural University ChinaAnna Wang South China Agricultural University ChinaSi Zhizhi Agriculture Information Institute, CAAS ChinaMuhammad Yaseen Agricultural Information Institute of CAAS ChinaZou Zijian Inner Mongolia Agriculture University ChinaHan Yaheng Agriculture Information Institute, CAAS ChinaZhu Zengyong Agriculture Information Institute, CAAS ChinaDadji Stephane Serge Bonny Programme National de Nutrition Côte d'Ivoire

Demetrio Miguel Castillo Universidad Experimental Felix Adam Dominican Republic

Aimée Hampel-Milagrosa German Development Institute GermanyMohammadreza Davari YPARD IranMax Blanck FAO ItalyBishnu Bahtt Tokyo University Japan

Stulina Galina International Fund for the Aral Sea KazakhstanMiranda Mirosa University of Otago New ZealandMario Pérez Lejarza Asociación Pueblos en Acción Comunitaria Nicaragua

Merie Dada Unagi Department of Agriculture and Livestock Papua New Guinea

Dosse Sossouga Amis des Etrangers au Togo TogoKoffi Allado Université de Lomé TogoB Cole National Algae Association USAPaul von Hartmann California Cannabis Ministry USABotir Dosov ICARDA-CAC / CACAARI UzbekistanComfort Mare University of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe

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