In a press statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Director-General QU Dongyu gave an overall view of the current nutrition situation in Asia and the Pacific.
His statement comes ahead of the upcoming Asia and the Pacific Regional Conference (#APRC36), scheduled to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from the 08th-11th March, 2022.
Director-General Dongyu stated that the current nutrition situation is difficult in many areas across the region. About 40 percent of its inhabitants cannot afford a healthy diet, and in some areas the fight against hunger has seen reversals rather than advances. Progress toward meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of defeating both poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2) has been thrown off track amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has devastated both lives and livelihoods.
Luckily, the picture is not all bleak and there are signs of optimism and dynamism. Advances in the region’s agrifood systems are changing the ways in which food is sustainably produced, marketed and consumed. This transformation reflects a greater awareness by Asia-Pacific producers and a growing demand from consumers for healthier, more nutritious foods.
Crop and livestock farmers, fishers, pastoralists, other producers and retailers – large and small – are successfully turning to innovative ideas and digital technologies. These improvements in production and sustainable resource management keeps more money in their pockets, while also helping to reverse environmental degradation.
All this is helping to create a paradigm shift that is taking shape in other parts of the world too. In Asia and the Pacific, there is a clear and growing movement toward innovation and digitalization along the entire agrifood value chain.
Retail grocery and food shopping is an important example. This is not only a phenomenon of well-developed economies, with four out of five sales of online food and grocery purchases taking place in the Asia-Pacific region.
This is just one aspect of the agrifood systems overhaul that is reshaping countries rapidly across Asia and the Pacific, from West Asia, all across South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia to the Pacific island countries.