LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — A new policy review published by the Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) calls on ASEAN to make resilience—rather than maximal self-sufficiency—its strategic food security objective, addressing persistent food insecurity in one of the world’s major food-producing and exporting regions.
Titled “ASEAN Food Security in an Era of Polycrisis: From Production-Centered Policy to Regional Resilience,” the paper is authored by Dr. Paul Teng of the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. It examines how climatic shocks, geopolitical conflict, energy and fertilizer price volatility, biological threats, trade restrictions, and economic pressures can occur simultaneously and amplify one another.
The paper highlights a paradox across Southeast Asia: despite being a major global producer and exporter of food, food insecurity and undernutrition persist within its borders. Citing estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partner agencies, the study notes that approximately 14 percent of Southeast Asians experience moderate or severe food insecurity and that 5.1 percent of the region’s population is undernourished.
According to Teng, the era of polycrisis demonstrates that judging food security primarily through production is insufficient. While domestic production and self-sufficiency remain important—especially for staple foods—countries must also be able to maintain functioning supply chains, keep food affordable and accessible, secure agricultural inputs, and protect nutrition when facing multiple simultaneous disruptions.
ASEAN member states possess diverse vulnerabilities and capabilities: some are major agricultural exporters while others depend heavily on food imports; some have greater financial resources, technology, logistics, and research capacity. Rather than expecting every member country to produce everything it needs, the paper emphasizes connecting these complementary strengths.
To build regional resilience, Teng proposes a strategy centered on keeping intra-ASEAN food trade open, diversifying external sources, strengthening agricultural input security, expanding climate-resilient production, protecting food affordability and nutrition, enhancing regional cooperation in data, preparedness, finance, and technology, and maximizing existing frameworks, such as the ASEAN Food, Agriculture and Forestry Sectoral Plan 2026–30, the ASEAN Integrated Food Security Framework, the ASEAN Food Security Information System, the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve, and the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network.
The primary challenge lies in improving implementation and ensuring these mechanisms function together during concurrent shocks. Teng notes that ASEAN should focus on what it can accomplish regionally better than individual member states: keeping regional markets functioning, sharing timely information, coordinating emergency responses, reducing capacity asymmetries, scaling proven solutions, and mobilizing external resources.
AJAD is an international refereed journal covering agriculture and development in Asia published by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). The policy review is available at https://doi.org/10.37801/ajad2026.23.2.p1
