Philippines backs 10-year APEC food security roadmap

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has thrown full support behind Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)’s 10-year food security roadmap, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Agriculture Secretary William Dar signed the country’s commitment to the roadmap during a virtual APEC food security ministerial meeting yesterday.

The APEC Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030 details goals and key action areas where the 21-member assembly is well-placed to help ensure that its people always have access to sufficient, safe, affordable and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Through the roadmap, the DA said the Philippines commits to advance digitalization and innovation, productivity, inclusivity, and sustainability to achieve food security in responding to the immediate global health crisis and economic shock brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his privilege speech, Dar said the DA is keeping a close watch on trends and technological developments in the global food production ecosystem, as it strives to bring agriculture advocacy and education to the next generation.

Dar emphasized that the country has a growing base of youthful agripreneurs who are using social media as their most cost-effective marketing tool.

“Swift catching up has been done the past couple of years. The young population of the Philippines is not about to miss out on lending their savvy for technology to one of the most vaunted sectors inducting economic recovery,” Dar said.

“This young, skilled cohort is being empowered by access to credit, further education and training in agri-fishery, and ready markets through our banner marketing programs. This new generation of agripreneurs are the vectors of digital culture,” he added.

Aside from targeting digitalization and innovation, the APEC Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030 also promotes the inclusion of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), women, youth, indigenous communities, and the elderly in the sector, as integral to maximizing resources, improving rural, remote, and coastal livelihoods, and unlocking the full potential of the APEC region.

“As we look to rebuild from the pandemic, we must adapt to change in a way that supports our MSMEs, such as small-scale producers in the food, agriculture and fisheries sectors. We are determined to leave no one behind,” the APEC ministers said in their statement.

The APEC agriculture and food ministers also highlighted the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) in New York in September as well as efforts towards achieving the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).

“We recognize that there is no ‘one size fits all’ pathway to these goals. We highlight APEC’s complementary efforts to support more productive, sustainable, and inclusive food systems,” the ministers said.

For his part, Dar said regional cooperation would offer valuable lessons to developing countries, such as the Philippines, to keep up with the times and future challenges in food systems and food production.

During the virtual meeting, the APEC food ministers also encouraged the private sector’s involvement in implementing the Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030.

The APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040, launched in November 2020, is a pledge made by the senior ministers that the world’s most dynamic regional economies will cooperate toward building an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific, and that member-countries will continue to work together to deliver a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, and predictable trade and investment environment.