The Rice Bown Index: Using Open Data to help drive sustainable and robust food security across Asia/Pacific
1. The Rice Bowl Index
Translating Complexity into an Opportunity for Action
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9. How can we harness knowledge to
make agriculture sustainable?
For a more food secure world.
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Food security is threatened on two fronts: population growth and rising
calorie consumption
World population
> 80% of growth happens in emerging markets
1950
2.5 billion
2011
7 billion
2050
9 billionEmerging
Developed
Source: FAO, Syngenta analysis
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1970 2000 2010 2030 2050
World demand for major crops*
bn tonnes
+50%
* Includes cereals, rice, corn and soybean
Food
Feed
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There is a vast universe of data and information sources on food security
and related topics
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The RBI distills information from these numerous public sources, with an
ultimate aim of facilitating concrete action
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Introduction to the Rice Bowl Index (RBI)
• Informing and stimulating public dialogue on food security in Asia
• Creating and identifying opportunities for concrete action towards improving food security
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Purpose: contribute to the broader effort of identifying and working towards
solutions
• Shift the focus of the debate from
problem to solution
• Support an evidence-based dialogue
• Facilitate positive and productive multi-
stakeholder dialogue, collaboration and
action
• Platform to support partnerships with
government, food value chain, NGOs
etc.
• Food security high on policy
agenda and is increasingly
complex
• Food production landscape in
Asia is rapidly changing
• Current food security debate is
fragmented, problem-centric and
opinion-driven
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Four categories comprise the overall Index…
Farm-Level
Do the farmers have the capability and means to be
productive?
Policy and Trade
Does the trade and policy environment encourage open
markets, investment and innovation?
Environmental
Will the environmental capacity in the country provide for
long-term agricultural productivity and sustainability?
Demand and Price
How will the food security needs in the country evolve?
Quantity, affordability, access?
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1. Managing the impacts of climate change within the agrifood system
2. Adopting a new business model for smallholder producers
3. Improving supply chain effectiveness through to market
4. Investing in innovation and infrastructure
5. Creating an enabling policy and regulatory environment
Emerging Challenges to Food Security
Every day, our planet wakes with 200,000 more mouths to feed. By 2050, the world's population would have increased by almost a third.
And to feed this growing population, we have to improve our agricultural productivity. We need to grow more from the existing land we have.
And losing farmland is just going to make things more difficult.
Farming is a resource intensive activity. It uses 70 percent of the world's fresh water. Growing food for one person takes about 2,000 liters of water a day. And that’s certainly not helpful when we consider how resource-scarce our planet has become.
So the first big challenge we are facing is this:
How do we produce more food to feed the growing world population?
And like in the case of the Vietnam farmer, more people are leaving rural communities to live and work in cities. Because farming is just such hard work. Yesterday, someone told me that the average age of farmers in the Philippines is now 57.
And we have a commitment to our planet and its biodiversity. More than 1/3 of the world’s agriculture depend on pollination but pollinator populations are falling in many countries.
I know this is starting to look like an NGO presentation, but these are challenges that affect all of us. It’s not just the responsibility of food and environmental NGOs to save the world.
Can agriculture be the solution?
Yes, but only if we do it properly.
Food security in Asia-Pacific is not beyond the reach of the region’s consumers, farmers, governments, technology providers and relevant support agencies. Achieving food security does however require robust dialogue and sensible policy which the RBI aims to continue to make a valuable contribution.