Background and rationale

(i) Background and Rationale.

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the Goal 1 on poverty reduction and the Goal 2 on Zero Hunger requires that all people are able to access adequate and nutritious food, which will require a sustainable food systems and sustainable increase in productivities and incomes of smallholder farmers. This challenge becomes more profound if contextualized in the regional of Asia and the Pacific, when considering unsustainable production modes, gaps in food systems and climate change.  

During the last decades, crop production has focused on cultivation of a few starchy crops. While the approach to concentrate on a few high yielding crops that respond well to high inputs has increased total food production and reduced food insecurity, it has left a significant nutrition gap due to the focus on a food basket that provides sufficient calories but only a limited range of nutrients. Currently, most staple crops have reached their inherent growth limits and future yield increases will not keep pace with population growth, leaving a production gap. Climate change is likely to reduce the area suitable for the cultivation of the current main staple crops, which would result in enormous negative effects on agricultural production. For example, rice, a water-dependent crop, the climate change often dominates crop production. It follows from this scenario that Asian countries will not achieve Zero Hunger by following conventional approaches to agricultural development.

Therefore, agricultural diversification is crucial for Asian countries to improve its food security and malnutrition status. Improving and diversifying diets is essential to human health and to curbing the growth in noncommunicable diseases. Reviving and maintaining diversity on the farm and on the plate requires action on multiple fronts and at multiple scales, involving both women and men. At a macro level, promoting diversity entails a gradual but definitive shift from industrial agriculture which relies on monocultures and an unsustainably small number of crops, crop varieties and animal breeds, to diversified sustainable farming systems. Future Smart Food (FSF) offer great potential. FSF refers to neglected and underutilized species (NUS) that are 1) nutrition-dense, 2) climate-resilient, 3) economically-viable, and 4) locally available or adaptable. Due to these characteristics, FSF are a promising resource and effective means to promote agricultural diversification and sustainable intensification.

Add brief introduction on CICA

Rationale to be rewritten based on the target countries

Potential partners:

FAO regional office for Asia and Pacific,

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI),

Center for International Agricultural Research (CIAR) at China Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)

Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD).

Target group

Farmers, households and farmers associations, Government officials (national, provincial and local), agricultural researchers, indigenous people, women and youth, E-commerce participants and other private sectors